1,442 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Quince paste

This traditional French "pâte de fruit" (fruit paste or leather) has a distinctive, firm consistency and is full of flavour, with the characteristic tang of quince.

The preparation is rather long, but the result is well worth all the effort.

42K 4/5 based on 5 reviews

Last modified on: December 3^rd 2017

Keywords for this recipe:

For 1 kg 800 g, you will need:

1 1 kg 600 g quince
2 1 lemon
3 900 g granulated sugar
4 60 g jam sugar
5 2 oranges (optional)
Total weight: 2,690 grams

Change these quantities to make: 300 g 450 g 900 g 1 kg 800 g 2 kg 700 g

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long will it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
33 min.	1 hour	30 min.	2 hours 3 min.

At what time:

When will I finish if I start the recipe at ... ?
When should I start for the recipe to be ready at ... ?
Work this out...

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 3 min.

Wash and brush 1 kg 600 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 1 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 2 oranges at this point.

Stage 6 - 3 min.

Weigh 900 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 60 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.

Keeping

Several days (weeks, even) in the fridge, covered with plastic film.

Source

From gaston Lenôtre, but dedicated to Isabelle and Patrick who will recognise something of themselves here..

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
4,984 Kcal or 20,867 Kj	15 gr	1,215 gr	8 gr
249 %	6 %	115 %	1 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
185 Kcal or 775 Kj	1 gr	45 gr	< 1 gr
9 %	<1 %	4 %	<1 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

For 1 kg 800 g : 4.28 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

	Quince: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Quince compote, Quince jelly, Confit of quinces in Macvin, Quince and apple compote, ... All
	Granulated sugar: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Diamond biscuits, Galette Charentaise, Windfall apple jelly, Windfall apple jelly, Candied grapefruit peel, ... All
	Jam sugar: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Clementine sorbet, Fillings for macaroons, Macarons (the original French macaroons) , ... All
	Lemon: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Melt-in-the mouth meat and vegetables in a sealed casserole, Surprise eggs, Mushrooms à la grecque, Fruit coulis (fruit purée), Strawberry sorbet, ... All

Other recipes you may also like

Crème brulée

Crème brûlée (burned cream) is quite easy to prepare: it's a simple egg-cream dessert. The only difficulty is in making the delicious crunchy caramel layer on top. The perfect crème brulée (for me) is a cold and soft cream, with on top a nice hot caramel crust. This is a completely new version...
December 31^th 20111.7M 74.3 4 hours 38 min.

Small ratatouille with

It's a hotch-potch of vegetables, cooked in two stages, onto which eggs are broken and cooked until the white only is just firm.
June 12^th 2011260K5 1 hour 3 min.

Scrambled eggs (Oeufs brouillés)

French-style scrambled eggs are rather special. It's not very difficult, just a bit long because it's cooked slowly in a bain-marie. Eventually you will get a delicious, refined and delicate preparation which can be eaten "as it is" or added to another recipe.
February 21^th 2011263K5 30 min.

Ratatouille confite

In this ratatouille recipe, the vegetables are cooked longer than usual to get a richer melting dish.
June 12^th 2011213K 13.8 2 hours 40 min.

Courgette tart with mint

Fried rounds of courgette in a puff pastry case with a feta and mint filling. You will find that this combination of feta with mint gives an agreeable fresh lift to this tart.
June 11^th 2011161K4.1 1 hour 23 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.