Tinctures, liqueurs and liqueurs from quince at home – 8 recipes

What do you know about quince? For sure, most of you know that it is impossible to eat these incredibly fragrant fruits in their pure form – too sour, tart, hard. Many of you, for sure, prepared jams, compotes, desserts, and maybe even meat or poultry dishes from it. A rare enthusiast thought about making an alcoholic drink from this strange fruit. And only experienced moonshiners know firsthand that tinctures, liquors and liqueurs from quince are miraculously good!

Your obedient servant loves quince. All my childhood I drank my grandmother’s compotes, ate jam and admired this divine aroma. Therefore, I thoroughly approached the search and formation of recipes for quince drinks. And I’ll start, perhaps, with the fact that there are two types of quince: common quince / oblong and Japanese quince (aka chaenomeles). The first grows mainly in the south (in the form of a tree), the shape of the fruit resembles a pear, contains a small amount of sugar and juice, the fruits are large. Japanese quince is more like a small apple and grows in the northern regions (in the form of a shrub), the fruits are harder, contain less juice, but are extremely aromatic (the aroma is very similar to pineapple). Due to their high vitamin C content and bright yellow color, chaenomeles are often referred to as server lemons.

Of course, Japanese quince is better suited for making tinctures, liqueurs and liqueurs, but decent drinks are also obtained from ordinary ones. There will be eight recipes for these drinks …

Quince tincture (quince au de vie)

The first and only recipe for tincture (however, you can’t even call it tincture, closer to liquor) is quince, which is oblong, which is Japanese, excessively sour, you can’t do without sugar. In addition, sugar brings out more subtle flavors. The recipe has French roots, which means that instead of “little white” you can try the same Eau de Vie (in other words, any fruit brandy).

Rinse the quince, cut into rings along with the peel and seeds, and then transfer to a jar of a suitable volume. Add sugar and vodka, mix well and send to infuse in a dark cool place. For the first two weeks, shake the contents of the jar every two days, and after that once a week for one month. After that, the finished drink can be filtered through a sieve or several layers of gauze, and then filtered through cotton wool or coffee filters (note that the drink can turn out to be very cloudy and the filtration will take a painfully long time, so it makes sense to let the drink rest for 2 weeks and more until the precipitate falls out). An extract is welcome. Quince tincture is great to drink neat after dinner.

Italian quince liqueur with spices

Rich, spicy, Italian. A good, tried and tested recipe by Alessandra Vinciguerra, horticulturist and president of Giardini La Mortella. In the original recipe, of course, grappa is indicated as the alcohol base, but you can replace it with any other drink with a neutral or fruity taste. Use vodka as a last resort.

Rinse the quince, finely chop or grate on a coarse grater, and then transfer to a jar of a suitable volume. Add bitter almonds, cinnamon, cloves and grated nutmeg. Pour everything with aquavit (the recipe for homemade aquavit can be found here) or grappa (you can replace it with any fruit brandy, the same chacha, for example). Close the jar tightly and leave in a dark, cool place for 2 months. After the set time has elapsed, drain the infusion through several layers of gauze, squeeze lightly, filter the liquid through several layers of gauze or coffee filters. From sugar and water, boil a simple syrup, cool and mix with the infusion. Pour the finished liquor into clean bottles, let it rest, stand and serve. Tastes well neat.

Roasted quince and apple liqueur

The perfect seasonal drink for the New Year holidays. Created by the cocktail enthusiast for homemade mixed drinks and eventually rooted in cocktails with sparkling wines. All the salt in this recipe lies in the roasting of quince fruits and apples, which contributes to their dehydration, caramelization and, most importantly, the concentration of taste. As a result, we get a rich mixture of a beautiful, deep golden color, with a delicate aroma of fruits and spices. Enjoy!

Preheat oven to 190^оC, prepare a baking sheet with parchment. Rinse quince and apples, cut off all the pulp, discard the core with seeds. Place fruit pieces on a baking sheet and send to the oven. Bake until the pieces are soft and lightly caramelized around the edges (about 30-35 minutes). Shake every 10-15 minutes to ensure they cook evenly. At the same time, boil a thick syrup from water and sugar by boiling it for 1 minute. Transfer the baked fruits to a jar of a suitable volume, add hot syrup, spices and zest. Allow the mixture to cool and add cognac so that it completely covers the contents. Insist in a dark cool place for 1-2 weeks, shake every couple of days. You can start tasting in a week, and as soon as the aroma and taste of the liquor begin to suit you, strain it through several layers of gauze, filter and pour into clean bottles. Keep refrigerated.

Roasted quince and apple liqueur will be a worthy ingredient in New Year’s champagne cocktails. Here is the recipe for one of them:

Japanese quince liqueur Karinshu

Karin is the Japanese name for that same Japanese quince, shu is alcohol or something like that, is not strong in Japanese. Using a similar technology in Japan, they prepare ume plum liqueur – Umeshu. Karinshū is made with shochu, a rice distillate, but it is very important to use shochu with a strength of 35% rather than 25% (more often a less alcoholic distillate comes across on the market), because the finished liquor must have at least 15% alcohol for its safety. Of course, you can think strategically and use vodka or fruit distillate, but then this recipe will not differ much from the first one in this article. So it goes.

Rinse the quince with hot water and wipe well with a dry waffle towel. Cut the fruit into slices 1 cm thick, do not discard the seeds. Place the chopped quince in a jar of a suitable volume, sprinkling it in layers with sugar. Pour shochu or vodka, close the jar tightly and leave to infuse in a dark, cool place for six months. After 6 months, drain the infusion through several layers of gauze, squeeze the quince, filter the infusion through cotton wool or coffee filters. Pour the finished liquor into clean bottles and let it age for another 6 months. Drink neat after meals.

Well, here we come to the most interesting (although where is it more interesting?), namely, quince liqueurs. Get ready, there will be four recipes!

Pouring from Japanese quince on alcohol

The recipe was shared by the user oleg on the forum.homedistiller.ru forum, where it was quickly tested by experienced and not so moonshiners, appreciated it and let it go to the masses. The drink was categorized as a liquor, but by all accounts it is a liqueur. The output is about 3 liters, the fortress is about 25-28%.

Cut the fruits into 4 parts, remove the core with stones, then cut into slices. Place the quince in a jar of a suitable volume, cover with sugar, shake well and send to a dark place until the sugar completely draws out the juice and turns into a fragrant syrup. Shake the contents of the jar every day. The result should be 0,7-1 l of syrup. It must be drained into a separate container and sent to the refrigerator for storage. Pour the pieces of quince remaining in the jar with alcohol and 0,5 liters of water. Insist for a week, drain, pour quince with water so that it covers the slices by about 1 finger. Wait another 1 week, drain, add the first drain and syrup. Pour the finished liqueur into a clean container and send to rest. The drink turns out to be very cloudy, it is poorly filtered, but over time a precipitate forms, from which the already transparent liquor readily merges. It is advisable to store quince liqueur in dark glass bottles or in a dark cabinet, otherwise it changes its beautiful golden color to oxidized brown.

Quince liqueur with rum and oranges

Rinse the quince, dry it, remove the core with stones, cut into slices. Place the crushed fruits in a jar of a suitable volume, add sugar, shake well and leave in a warm, dark place for several days until the sugar is completely dissolved. Shake the contents of the jar once a day. When the sugar dissolves and turns into syrup, add honey, rum, vodka, juice and zest (without white skin) of half an orange. Close the jar tightly and leave for 6 weeks in a dark, cool place. After a month and a half, drain the liquor through several layers of gauze and pour into clean bottles. Store in a dark cabinet. It is desirable to withstand the drink for several months, and preferably six months. Drain off sediment as needed.

Quince vodka spicy

Rinse quince, dry, cut into quarters. Place the cut fruits in a large saucepan with a thick bottom, add sugar and fry until the sugar caramelizes for a few minutes. Add half a liter of water and spices, lower the heat and simmer for about 2 hours (if during cooking you notice that the syrup thickens quickly and begins to turn into a jelly-like mass, remove it from the heat; you can boil the syrup for only 20 minutes, and then leave for 1 time to insist). The result should be a very thick fragrant syrup (during this time the syrup should boil down by about 1/3). Let it cool, strain (quince can be used for desserts or dishes) and mix in a jar of a suitable volume with vodka. Close the jar tightly and leave for a month in a dark, cool place to stabilize the taste. After pouring can be filtered and poured into clean bottles. An extract is welcome.

Quince liqueur on vodka “Deluxe”

Preparation is similar to the previous recipe, only vanilla must be added directly to the bottles.