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Preserved Quinces

Instructions

The quince that comes first into the market is likely to be wormy and corky, and harder to cook than the better ones. It requires a good deal of skill to cook quince preserves just right. If you cook them too much they are red instead of a beautiful salmon shade, and they become shriveled, dry and tart, even in the sweetest syrup, instead of full and mealy, and sweet.

Weigh a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit. Wipe each quince carefully with a coarse linen towel. Peel, quarter and core the quinces. Put peels and cores in the preserving kettle with just water enough to cover them, and let them simmer with the kettle covered for two hours. Then strain the liquor through a fine sieve and return it to the kettle.

Cut the quartered quinces in small pieces and put as many of them in the kettle as the liquor will cover. Let them boil gently, with the kettle uncovered, until so tender they may be easily pierced with a broom splint. Take them out with a skimmer and lay on flat dishes to cool. Repeat this process until all the fruit is properly cooked; then put the sugar in the liquor and let it boil gently to a thick syrup; put in as many of the cooked quinces as the syrup will cover and let them cook in the syrup for twenty minutes; skim them out and lay on flat dishes to cool. Repeat this process until all the quinces are cooked in the syrup.

When they are cool put the quinces in glass jars, filling each one half full. Let the syrup boil until very thick, stirring it frequently and skimming it clear. Then pour it through a fine strainer, while very hot, over the fruit; and as soon as a jar is full, fasten on the cover. It is tiresome work to preserve quinces, but the result pays for all the trouble.

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Source

The International Jewish Cook Book (1919).