Name: Quince paste
Prep time: 1 h 33 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 2 h 3 min
Yield: 900 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 800 g quince; ½ lemon; 450 g granulated sugar; 30 g jam sugar; 1 orange

For 900 g, you will need:

1 800 g quince
2 ½ lemon
3 450 g granulated sugar
4 30 g jam sugar
5 1 orange (optional)
Total weight: 1,345 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

35 min.

Resting

1 hour

Cooking

30 min.

All in all

2 hours 3 min.

Preparation 35 min.

Resting 1 hour

Cooking 30 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

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Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 3 min.

Wash and brush 800 g quinces, but do not peel, as the skin add to the flavour.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 8 min.

Cut the quinces into quarters, then remove and discard the core. Cut each quarter into small pieces.

Put the quince pieces into a saucepan, add ½ lemon cut into 4 and just enough water to cover.

Note: From 800g of quinces, you should be left with 500 g of cut fruit.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 20 min.

Put the pan uncovered on medium heat and cook until the fruit is soft enough for the point of a knife to go through it easily.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.

After cooking, discard the lemon pieces and pass the quinces through a vegetable mill on "fine" setting.

Do not throw away the cooking liquid.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 3 min.

Transfer the quince pulp into a saucepan and weigh it (from 500 g cut fruit, you should be left with about 350 g of cooked pulp).

Weigh 30% of this weight in cooking liquid (100 g here), then mix this with the quince pulp.

You can add the zest of 1 orange at this point.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 3 min.

Weigh 450 g granulated sugar (this should be the same wieght as the mixture of fruit pulp and cooking liquid).

Take out 50 g of this sugar at mix it separately with the 30 g jam sugar.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 4 min.

Put the saucepan on high heat and bring to the boil, then tip in the 50 g of sugar with its gelling agent.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 3 min.

Mix well, bring back to the boil and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 1 min.

Add the rest of the sugar all at once.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 3 min.

Mix well, bring back to the boil and cook for a further 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 1 hour

Pour into a mould or tin, lined with a sheet of cooking parchment.

Leave to cool for at least 1 hour.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 10 min.

Turn out and cut into pieces about the size of a sugar cube.

Stage 13

You can make the paste look more attractive by rolling the pieces in a little granulated sugar, but this is not essential.

Remarks

This is a very ancient sweetmeat, particularly appreciated at the French court during the Renaissance. It was apparently a favourite of both Marie de' Medici and the Duc de Guise.

Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	0 g	45 g RDI=13 %	0 g	185 kcal RDI=7 %	776 kJ RDI=7 %
Whole recipe	7 g RDI=9 %	607 g RDI=170 %	4 g RDI=4 %	2,492 kcal RDI=92 %	10,434 kJ RDI=92 %