This is a quince. They grow on bushes; mostly in the yards of old houses, as they just aren't planted much anymore here in the US. We have a quince bush, and several neighbors have them, but they have no interest in the fruit. So they let me have it.
There are a lot of reasons quince have gone 'out-of-style.' They are very tart: they taste like a citrus fruit. Also, they are very hard, and mine are not very big. So it takes a lot of determination to get a bag full of small fruits chopped up to cook down to juice.
I found the recipe I used on SimplyRecipes.com. Past years, I have made a quince jam. This year I decided to do a jelly, but I did let a bit of the cooked down pulp go through the 2-sieve system I used into the juice. I like there to be a bit of fruit in my spread, which is why I generally prefer jam to jelly. The quince juice turns pink as you cook it down.
Four hours later, I ended up with 7 small jars of what I will be calling 'Jam-ly,' as it is not quite a jam, but is most like a jelly. I tried a bit on toast. This is not only the best Quince-anything I have ever made or had, but I think it's the best spread of any kind I have made or had! Oh my goodness! I may hide and hoard this for myself!
2 comments:
We tried our first quinces this year from my mother's garden. There weren't that many of them so we used them up in a "day of quinces": roast quince & rosemary with venison, followed by apple & quince crumble. The crumble was a big hit, the savoury effort not so much. Sounds like we need to try jam-ly next year...
Sounds delicious, and looks so pretty. Maybe my Quince bush will make fruit sometime, it's only a few years old....
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