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The healing properties of fragrant tart quince have been known for a long time. It is believed that its first cultural plantings appeared in Asia more than 4 millennia ago. In addition to vitamins and minerals, quince contains mucus, glycosides, tannins, organic acids, and essential oils. It is noteworthy that 100 g of pulp contains 30 mg of iron, and this is neither more nor less than the daily norm for an adult. The pharmaceutical industry uses the fruits, leaves and even seeds of this plant.
Not everyone will eat this wonderful fruit raw – its flesh is hard, tart, sour, bitter. But during heat treatment, the taste of quince magically changes – it becomes soft, sweet, fragrant. The fruits are baked, stewed, fried, used as a side dish for meat. And delicious quince jam is just one of the wonderful delicacies that you can cook. Pastila, jams, marmalades, compotes, numerous soft drinks – this is not a complete list of sweets made from aromatic tart fruits, popular in many countries.
Jam from a quince
There are many recipes that are easy to cook on your own. We will make the most delicious quince jam. But in order for it to really become a delicacy, you need to remember some important points:
- Quince can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 months, so you can buy it even when you do not have time to make jam right away. Only fruits need to be chosen evenly colored, with an intact peel. Quince with greenish spots and spoiled skin will deteriorate quickly.
- Conduct heat treatment as much as indicated in the recipes. With prolonged cooking, the quince does not soften, but hardens, and you risk getting candied fruit instead of jam.
- In almost all recipes, the weight of the fruit exceeds the amount of sugar. Don’t let this bother you – you need to peel the quince, remove the core, you will get quite large waste.
- Ripe fruits are smooth, and not fully ripened – covered with pile.
With lemon
It seems, why add lemon to quince jam? She’s so sour! But when cooked, the fruits become not only soft, but also sweet. Therefore, almost every recipe for delicious jam contains citric or other acid.
Ingredients
To prepare this delicacy, you will need:
- quince – 2,5 kg;
- sugar – 2 kg;
- water – 1 glass;
- lemon – 1 pcs.
You can add a little cinnamon to the jam, but not everyone likes it. It happens that even members of the same family cannot agree on whether to use this spice. Part of the finished jam before packaging in jars can be mixed with cinnamon, and in order not to confuse, label the lids.
Preparation
Rinse the lemon, grate the zest on a fine grater, squeeze out the juice.
Wash quince thoroughly. To remove the pile, if you bought not fully ripe fruits, use a brush or sponge with an abrasive coating. Peel the peel, remove the core.
Cut the quince into slices about 0,5 cm thick, sprinkle with lemon juice, sprinkle with sugar, mix.
Place in a heavy-bottomed stainless steel or aluminum saucepan. Pour the mixture with water, cover with a lid, put on a quiet fire.
While the quince is slowly boiling, sterilize the jars, boil the lids.
Stir the jam from time to time so that it does not burn. In total, the quince should be boiled for about an hour and a half. Check the degree of readiness as follows: take a little syrup into a spoon and drip onto a clean, dry saucer. If the liquid does not spread – the jam is almost ready, no – continue cooking.
Toward the very end, pour in the grated lemon zest, stir well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Pack thick fragrant jam in sterile jars. Some of it can be made with cinnamon. To do this, add the spice to the hot mass and stir well before laying out in containers.
Seal the jars, wrap them in an old blanket, and when they have cooled, put them away for storage.
The resulting quince jam will be very thick.
With walnuts
Any nuts can be added to quince jam. Everyone will choose the most delicious recipe for themselves and use hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts or even cashews. We will cook quince jam with walnuts. Those who prefer almonds can find out the recipe by watching the video:
Ingredients
To make jam, take:
- quince – 1 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- lemon – 1 pcs .;
- water – 0,5 l;
- walnuts – 1 tbsp.
Preparation
Make a syrup with half the water and sugar.
Wash the quince well with a brush or a hard sponge. Peel it from the peel and core, but do not throw them away.
Cut the fruit into slices, cover with the remaining water and boil for 10 minutes.
Remove the water from the quince in a separate bowl, pour the syrup over the slices, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and let it brew for 3 hours.
Then put the dishes with jam on a quiet fire, after boiling, cook for 15 minutes. Remove the saucepan or bowl from heat and let cool. Boil again, cool.
Wash the lemon and peel it. Pour the zest, peelings and the core of the fruit into a saucepan with liquid, where the quince was boiled for the first time. Boil for 15 minutes and strain.
Cut the pulp of the lemon into small pieces, peel the walnuts from the shell and partitions. They can be crushed or left as is, as you wish.
When the jam boils for the third time, pour in the strained broth from the zest, peel and core of the quince fruit. Enter walnuts and lemon pulp, stir well. Let it boil for 5 minutes, put out the fire and pack in sterile jars.
Seal them, insulate, and after cooling, put them away for storage.
Jam
Jam with a very thick syrup and boiled fruits is called jam. For its preparation, you can even take overripe, greenish or damaged quince, most importantly, cut and discard the spoiled parts of the fruit.
Ingredients
To make jam, take:
- quince – 1 kg;
- sugar – 0,8 kg;
- citric acid – 0,25 tsp;
- water.
We do not indicate the exact amount of liquid. Take it so much that the fruit pieces are completely covered with it.
Preparation
Wash the quince, peel, remove the core, cut into small pieces.
Place the fruit in a wide container, fill with water and cook for 5 minutes at a strong boil. Then reduce the heat to a minimum, keep the quince on the stove for another 45 minutes, stirring constantly.
Drain and return 1,5 cups of liquid to the jam jar.
Grind fruit pieces with a blender. Enter sugar, citric acid, put on a small fire, cook with constant stirring for half an hour.
The readiness of jam is checked differently than that of jam. The substance should not drain from the spoon, but fall in pieces.
Pour the jam into sterile jars, screw on the lids, wrap. After cooling, store in a cool place.
Confiture
Confiture can be called the French brother of jam. They just make it often with the use of thickeners – gelatin or agar-agar. In the cooked confiture, the pieces remain intact, while the jam implies that they are completely boiled. Quince itself contains a lot of pectins, and it is not necessary to add gelling agents to it.
Ingredients
To prepare confiture, take:
- quince – 1,5 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- water – 300 ml;
- citric acid – 1 teaspoon.
Preparation
Wash the quince well with a hard sponge or brush – we still need the peel. Peel the fruits, remove the core. Cut the fruit into small pieces and dip in water with citric acid so that the quince does not darken.
Fill the waste with water, boil for 5 minutes. Strain, add sugar and boil the syrup.
Put pieces of fruit there, put on a quiet fire and cook until the quince becomes transparent.
When the syrup begins to gel and the pieces of fruit are evenly distributed in it, add citric acid, boil for another 3 minutes.
Pack the confiture in jars, roll them up, insulate. After cooling, store in a cool place.
With Pumpkin
Thanks to the pumpkin, quince jam will acquire a soft, slightly spicy taste. It will turn out to be unique and useful. Even those who can’t stand pumpkin in any form will be happy to eat such jam.
Ingredients
You will need:
- quince – 1 kg;
- pumpkin – 0,5 kg;
- sugar – 1,5 kg;
- lemon juice – 30 ml.
This recipe is prepared without water.
Preparation
Quince wash with a brush or washcloth, peel, remove the middle, cut into slices. Try to keep the pieces the same.
Cut off the hard skin of the pumpkin, remove the seeds, cut into quince-like plates.
Combine the ingredients, sprinkle with lemon juice and sprinkle with sugar, cover with a thin clean cloth or gauze, let it brew for 12 hours to extract the juice.
Put the dishes on a strong fire, with constant stirring, bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature to a minimum and cook for half an hour. Remember to stir the jam gently so that it does not burn.
Pour hot jam into containers, cork, insulate. Remove after cooling for storage in a cool place.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to make delicious quince jam. We have given only a few recipes, and we hope that your family will like them. Enjoy your meal!