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The healing properties of aromatic tart quince have been known for a long time. It is believed that its first cultural plantings appeared in Asia more than 4 thousand years 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, which is neither more nor less than the daily requirement 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 pulp is hard, tart, sour, and bitter. But when cooked, the taste of quince magically changes - it becomes soft, sweet, aromatic. The fruits are baked, stewed, fried, and used as a side dish for meat. And delicious quince jam is just one of the wonderful delicacies that can be prepared. Marshmallows, jams, marmalades, compotes, numerous soft drinks - this is not a complete list of sweets made from aromatic tart fruits, popular in many countries.
Quince jam
There are many recipes that are easy to prepare yourself. We will make the most delicious quince jam.But in order for it to truly 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 don’t have time to prepare jam right away. Only fruits need to be chosen that are evenly colored, with intact skin. Quinces with greenish spots and damaged skin will spoil quickly.
- Carry out heat treatment for as long as indicated in the recipes. When cooked for a long time, the quince does not soften, but hardens, and you risk getting candied fruits 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 end up with quite a lot of waste.
- Ripe fruits are smooth, and not fully ripe - covered with fluff.
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 pc.
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. Before packaging into jars, some of the finished jam can be mixed with cinnamon, and to avoid confusion, label the lids.
Preparation
Rinse the lemon, grate the zest on a fine grater, and squeeze out the juice.
Wash the quince thoroughly. To remove lint if you bought fruits that are not fully ripened, use a brush or sponge with an abrasive coating. Peel the peel and remove the core.
Cut the quince into pieces about 0.5 cm thick, sprinkle with lemon juice, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and mix.
Place in a stainless or aluminum saucepan with a thick bottom. Pour the mixture with water, cover with a lid, and place on low heat.
While the quince is quietly boiling, sterilize the jars and boil the lids.
Stir the jam from time to time to prevent it from burning. 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 drop it onto a clean, dry saucer. If the liquid does not spread, the jam is almost ready, if not, continue cooking.
Towards the very end, add grated lemon zest, stir well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Pack the thick, aromatic jam into sterile jars. Some of it can be made with cinnamon. To do this, add the spice to the hot mass and stir well before placing it 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 make 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 pc.;
- water – 0.5 l;
- walnuts – 1 tbsp.
Preparation
Make syrup from half water and sugar.
Wash the quince well with a brush or hard sponge.Peel and core it, but don't throw it away.
Cut the fruit into slices, add the remaining water and boil for 10 minutes.
Place the water from the quince in a separate bowl, pour the syrup over the slices, add the remaining sugar, and let it brew for 3 hours.
Then place the bowl with the jam on low heat, and after boiling, cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan or bowl from the heat and let cool. Boil again, cool.
Wash the lemon and peel it. Pour the zest, peelings and core of the fruit into the saucepan with the liquid where the quince was first cooked. Boil for 15 minutes and strain.
Cut the lemon pulp into small pieces, peel the walnuts from shells and partitions. They can be chopped or left as is as you wish.
When the jam boils for the third time, pour in the strained decoction of the zest, peel and core of the quince fruit. Add walnuts and lemon pulp, stir well. Let it boil for 5 minutes, turn off the heat and pack into sterile jars.
Seal them, insulate them, and after cooling, store them.
Jam
Jam with very thick syrup and boiled fruits is called jam. To prepare it, you can even take overripe, greenish or damaged quince; the main thing is to cut out and throw away the damaged parts of the fruit.
Ingredients
To make jam, take:
- quince – 1 kg;
- sugar – 0.8 kg;
- citric acid – 0.25 teaspoon;
- water.
We do not indicate the exact amount of liquid. Take enough of it so that the pieces of fruit are completely covered with it.
Preparation
Wash the quince, peel, remove the core, and cut into small pieces.
Place the fruit in a wide container, add water and cook for 5 minutes at a high boil.Then turn the heat to minimum and keep the quince on the stove for another 45 minutes, stirring constantly.
Drain the water and return 1.5 cups of liquid to the container for making jam.
Grind the fruit pieces using a blender. Add sugar and citric acid, put on low heat, cook with constant stirring for half an hour.
The readiness of jam is checked differently from jam. The substance should not flow from the spoon, but fall in pieces.
Pour the jam into sterile jars, screw on the lids, and wrap. Once cooled, store in a cool place.
Confiture
Confiture can be called the French brother of jam. But it is often made using thickeners - gelatin or agar-agar. In prepared confiture, the pieces remain intact, while jam implies that they are completely boiled. Quince itself contains a lot of pectin, 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 will need the peel later. Peel the fruits and remove the core. Cut the fruit into small pieces and dip in water with citric acid to prevent the quince from darkening.
Pour water over the waste and boil for 5 minutes. Strain, add sugar and cook syrup.
Place pieces of fruit there, place on low heat 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 and boil for another 3 minutes.
Pack the confiture into jars, roll them up, and insulate them. After cooling, store in a cool place.
With pumpkin
Thanks to the pumpkin, quince jam will acquire a soft, slightly piquant taste. It will turn out to be unique and useful. Even those who hate pumpkin in any form will enjoy eating this 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
Wash the quince with a brush or washcloth, peel the skin, remove the core, and cut into slices. Try to make the pieces the same.
Trim the hard skin of the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and cut into quince-like slices.
Combine the ingredients, sprinkle with lemon juice and sugar, cover with a thin, clean cloth or gauze, let sit for 12 hours to release the juice.
Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Reduce the temperature to low and cook for half an hour. Don't forget to stir the jam carefully so it doesn't burn.
Pour the hot jam into containers, seal and insulate. After cooling, store 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 your family will like them. Bon appetit!
