Topic: Quince cheese/paste

[Tin Shed]

Spent hours today attempting to make some beautiful red quince cheese. Chopped them,
cooked them, removed the core, put them through the veggie mill -then added equal weight in sugar and stirred and stirred waitng for a lovely thick red paste............ got the paste, but it wasn't red, but light orange. 
It's not the quince as I have already made some beautiful deep red quince jelly. Anyone got any ideas - did I use too much sugar?

[saddad]

We made some about two years ago... it's still in the beer fridge! My crop needs picking but what can I do with it!!!
 :-[

[Tin Shed]

Saddad, Calendula et al gave me some great ideas on my previous thread about quince ice cream. I wanted to make some snazzy red quince cheese, but have ended up with some solid orange gunk. It tastes OK, but doesn't look that appetising!

[saddad]

Yes I saw that but as I am Lactose Intolerant Ice Cream is a none starter...
 :-[  :'(

[artichoke]

When I made it, the paste needed drying out in heat (apparently Spaniards put it out in the sun), so I kept it in the airing cupboard, uncovered, for a few weeks, and it stiffened up nicely. I'm not saying it was quite the texture and colour of Spanish or Portuguese membrillo, but it was nice. My experience is that the longer you cook it before adding the sugar, or even after (can't quite remember) the redder it got, as this recipe confirms (except that I put the paste into flat containers and dried them out as described above):

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=467

I haven't made membrillo recently, but I add quince puree to the huge quantities of apple puree I am making at the moment, and it tastes lovely in pies or with pork, duck etc. Almost anything, in fact. When I started teaching in 1966, there were still school cooks, and they made quince and apple pies which were lovely!

[grawrc]

Are you using proper quince or ornamental? I only ask because I have a bumper crop of Chaenomeles Japonica type quince and was wondering what if anything I could use them for.

[Tin Shed]

I am using proper quince and perhaps I should have cooked the quince for longer before  I added the sugar. It was soft when I put it through the veggie mill so I thought that it was ready. Will try again when I have the time to stand at the stove for hours!!!

[jennym]

...I have a bumper crop of Chaenomeles Japonica type quince and was wondering what if anything I could use them for.

You can make jelly from them! It's lovely and fruity tasting, although not always very clear. Just wash, chop up skin, pips and all, cover with water, add lemon juice if they are very ripe, bring to boil then turn down and simmer until they are really soft and break up when pressed gently. Strain off the juice, test for pectin and if it passes, then add 75% sugar by weight to the juice. Bring to boil and boil until it reaches 104 - 105 deg C, and has those shattery type curtainy drips (if you know what I mean). It ends up a sort of dark amber colour and tastes really nice and fruity.

[artichoke]

I agree about using decorative quince fruit - if you don't add too much sugar it makes a delicious sharp jelly for going with meat, eg lamb, duck, etc. Just about to make this year's.

[grawrc]

Thank you! I'll go pick them up then! ;D ;D

[calendula]

Yes I saw that but as I am Lactose Intolerant Ice Cream is a none starter...
 :-[  :'(

some of the other ideas offered were Quince Stew (using minced lamd and lovely spices); Spiced Quinces; Baked Honey Quinces with Mascapone and Biscotti (you could substitute the mascapone with a soya based cheese); Quince Jam; Quince Chutney; Quince marinated Pork Ribs; Roast pheasant with Quince Paste; Vanilla poached quince - sure there are oodles more out there  ;D

[grawrc]

Jen how do I test for pectin?

[valmarg]

grawrc, to test for pectin, according to my Aussie Women's Weekly cookbook on Preserves, you place one teaspoon of the strained fruit liquid in a glass, add three teaspoons methylated spirits: stir mixture gently with a teaspoon.

* If mixture forms a fairly solid single jelly-like clot, the fruit liquid is high in pectin; in this case use one pound of sugar to each pint of liquid.  (This jelly will set quickly, without long cooking time; there will be little evaporation of liquid, giving a good yield of jelly for the amount of fruit used).

* If several smaller clots of jelly form, the jelly is not high in pectin; use 3/4 pound of sugar to each pint of fruit liquid.

* If pectin tests fails to produce any clots or gives a mass of tiny clots, it will then be necessary to add some fruit juice naturally rich in pectin, usually two tablespoons fresh strained lemon juice to each 1kg of fruit; add this after the sugar is dissolved.

I would have to say that it is not a test I have ever carried out, but the Aussie Women's Weekly cookbooks are very good, if only they didn't do everything in cups.  That wouldn't be so bad if the Aussie cups were the same size as the American, but they're not, they are quite a bit bigger.

And hey chaps, shall we not go down the bra route ::)

valmarg

[jennym]

The way I do it is this:
Actually, I don't at this point strain off all the juice, just take a few drops from the pan and put in an old eggcup, must let it cool, so put the eggcup in the fridge first, then add just enough meths to cover the juice. Don't stir. After about 30 secs, tip out onto an old plate and look. If the blob of jelly is whole, round and you can push it about with your finger, there's enough pectin in the juice. If not there isn't.
This could be because there just isn't enough pectin, or because there's too much water in the juice.
With quince, boil up the pan including the flesh for about 10 mins and try again, because it is a fruit that's high in pectin. When the fruit is very ripe or isn't naturally high, then adding lemon juice will bring out pectin in the flesh or adding fruit or juice that is high will help.
I think that the Aussie way shown by valmarg is similar really, they advocate using less sugar on the med/low pectin result because by the time you've boiled down the mixture the pectin may be more concentrated within it.
I wouldn't do this - the reason being that it is dead easy to go too high in temperature with your jelly once the sugar is in. If you don't add the sugar, you can safely concentrate the juices without fear of ruining the set or colour of the jelly.
I also wouldn't add the lemon juice after the sugar is added - the reason for this is that I have found that the pectin is more easily released from the flesh when high levels of sugar aren't present.
To summarise, try to extract as much pectin from the flesh of the fruit before adding the sugar.

[saddad]

It's on my list to pick the true quince (Meech's Prolific) and it lives up to the name.. If anybody wants to collect some they are more than welcome, just pm me!
 8)