Candied Quince | A Sweet Old-Fashioned Treat
June 23 | Written by: Allie Faden
This is a quince. A quince with a side dish of grains of paradise (substitute is black pepper), saffron, star anise, vanilla, dried orange, and chile. You should spice your quince, or not, as you prefer. No hard and fast rules here.
Why, Allie?
Mainly because I like quince. I do not usually like to prepare quince, but eating it? All the yes to that! I wanted it to have some fun extra flavors, but not too over-the-top, so my spices are in small quantities to accommodate their strong flavors.
This “recipe” (lies: it’s another “method”) is pretty easy, once you have peeled and cut however many quince you’re preparing. It also is sort of a hybrid between membrillo and Pliny’s quinces in honey. Pliny really liked his quince boiled in honey. Also too did Apicius. And I think probably anyone who’s really tried it; quinces boiled in honey and wine is still popular in the Mediterranean region. Everyone likes it! Except, unsurprisingly, me. Because of the wine they also boil(ed) it in. I really do not like the flavor of wine in this context. If you do? Go straight Pliny and wine it up! You’ll use about equal parts of honey and wine if so.
Cut in half, then into strips. Once they’re in strips, peel them and cut into pieces. Size is up to you. I personally do not peel quine before I’ve cut it anymore, because for some reason I always lose little bits of skin to the peeler, and I wanted to keep my skin this time. Use a stout knife because it’s a stout fruit.
I put the spices shown up top in this little tea bag. Then I remembered my deep love of coriander and added some, per the above picture.
Yep. They sure do oxidize fast! No, legit this took me some time because apparently I am weaker than I think I am. Consequently, they did oxidize. If you are less weak and/or more efficient, yours are less likely to oxidize. That said, it matters not if they oxidize before you’re ready to cook them.
Fruit and spices into a pot. I put about ¾ cup of honey in the measuring cup and topped it off with water.
Give it a little stir before the stove is involved. If you want.
That orange slice is dehydrated, so don’t worry if you decide to use an orange slice and it doesn’t look like this.
We are now on the stove!
My favorite thing about quince is its color shifting magic. From white to pink! Pink will be here shortly.
Oh ho! Getting some pink/red going on here! You can probably tell from the vigor of the boil that I probably should’ve called it here. Yet…
I did not!
Why, you ask? It’s because I wanted a bit of char on some of the quince pieces. This is them, with some char, in the remnants of their cooked honey. I used a small Fido jar for these, but jar type doesn’t matter because the sugar content is high enough that it will be a hot minute before these guys even start trying to determine if they can mold with all the sugar they’ve absorbed from the honey.
What to do with these?
I’m gonna tell you they’re amazing on crusty bread, and that’s true. But I am largely a spoon-to-mouth kind of guy on this front, so while I always intend to eat them in some civilized or semi-civilized fashion, I do not. I instead turn into a toddler, eating large spoonfuls, honey getting all over me, and a belly that sighs with happiness. You also can put them into tarts, use for full sized pies, probably would be bomb in some jam cookies or even as a cupcake or muffin add-in. You could, if you like sweet with meat, service these with those. I’d personally go lamb, mutton, goat, pheasant, duck, goose, or venison. You absolutely can serve these with chicken or beef, but I personally prefer something with a bit of the wild in its flavor profile if I’m going to do anything other than spoon to mouth.
Is there an actual recipe, Allie?
Sort of! Yes. For a one-quince batch. Scale as needed:
Ingredients
1 quince
Spices you’ve chosen or what I did (grains of paradise/pepper, star anise/anise, coriander, saffron, bit of vanilla bean (I used 1” of old and dried bean), 1 dried orange slice, and 1 chiltepin)
¾-ish cup honey
1/4-ish cup of water
pinch of salt (not shown in any pictures, it seems)
Prepare your quince for cooking, then add it to a saucepan. Put your spices in a tea or spice bag, tied up cheesecloth, or whatever else might help you contain them enough to remove easily. Add the honey and water, then set the heat to medium-high and start stirring. If you are going to stop stirring at any point during this process, definitely turn that heat down to medium-low and do what you need to quickly. This really doesn’t take too long.
Cook, stirring most or all of the time, until the liquids are reduced and thicker, and your quince pieces are pink or red. Put into a jar or other container of some type. I store these in my pantry, but you can put them in the fridge if preferred. If you do fridge them, make sure you take them out earlier than you otherwise would from the pantry so the honey sauce can warm up and spread more easily.
Happy eating!
—Allie Faden
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