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Quince Marmalade
Peel and cut into thin slices four pounds of quinces; place them in a preserving-pan with two pounds of peeled and sliced apples and two quarts of water in which a little lemon juice has been squeezed. Place the cover on the pan and boil the contents quickly till softened; then put in three pounds of crushed loaf sugar and stir it over the fire with a wooden spoon until of a thick paste. Remove the pan from the fire, pour the marmalade into jars and leave it until cold. Place brandied paper in each jar and tie them down.
A straightforward high-sugar preserve, but two things need translating: the sugar it calls for and the way the jars are closed.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a hard cone, broken and crushed for use. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct substitute, weight for weight — three pounds is about 6 3/4 cups.
- Why the apples are thereQuinces are already pectin-rich; the sliced apples add more pectin and acid and stretch the batch. A tart cooking apple is the right choice here.
- Preserving-panA wide, shallow, unlined copper or heavy brass pan. Any wide heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot works — width matters more than depth, because the whole point of the second stage is evaporation.
- The hinge: cook the fruit soft before the sugar goes inSugar added to underdone quince fixes it hard and it will never soften again. Boil covered until a slice crushes easily against the side of the pan, then add sugar.
- Stirring down to a pasteExpect a good half-hour or more of near-constant stirring after the sugar goes in. It scorches readily once thick; keep the heat moderate and scrape the bottom. Done is when a spoon drawn through leaves a channel that holds for a second or two; on a thermometer that is 220F at the least, and a genuinely stiff paste will go higher.
- Quinces darkenThe flesh oxidises fast once cut, which is what the lemon water is for. Prolonged cooking turns the marmalade from pale gold to deep rose-amber — this is normal and desirable, not scorching.
- Brandied paperA disc of paper dipped in brandy laid on the surface, with a second cover tied over the jar mouth. It suppressed surface mould in a cool larder. It is not a seal: today, either process filled jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes with proper two-piece lids, or refrigerate and use within a couple of months.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; from these quantities expect somewhere around 7 to 8 half-pint jars, depending how far the paste is reduced.
Quince was the original marmalade fruit — the word comes through French marmelade from Portuguese marmelada, a stiff quince paste, from marmelo, quince; the orange preserve borrowed the name later. Raw quince of most old varieties is hard and astringent, and its high pectin and acid made it the standard fruit for pastes firm enough to slice, of which Spanish membrillo is the surviving relative. Quinces ripen late, in October and November, well after the soft fruit is gone, so a preserve like this was autumn work.