I
just got my
first
harvest of quinces. Can I make quince cheese?
Yes,
but don't. Quince cheese is not a good beginners' project. It will take
months before it is ready to eat and you will not want to wait that
long to find out if it even came out OK, let alone enjoy the fruits of
your labor.
Make quince jam
instead. Then make quince syrup
for
making
soda pop or jello. Then take the pulp
left over from that and make another liquid from it and save it in the
freezer. You will use this liquid later when you are ready to make
quince cheese. When you have made enough jam and syrup for yourself
for a year and to give some as gifts, and still have enough quince left
over, then go ahead and make quince
cheese.
Making Quince
"Cheese" a.k.a. Fruit
Leather
Preparation:
Select
the largest, smoothest quinces you have.
Put
some of the quince liquid you saved from your last batch of jam
into a bowl.
Peel
and core the quinces, cutting off the plain, clean pulp. Put
the cleaned pulp
into the bowl of quince liquid. (Put the cores and peels and
all
the too small and knobbly fruit into the crockpot and make
quince jam with it. We wouldn't want to waste it.)
Making
the
quince cheese:
Take
a small
amount of the quince liquid made as a by-product when making jam and
put it
into a blender and turn on high. Feed the pieces of quince
into the blender slowly one at a time, so you can blend the quince
using as little liquid as possible. Add more liquid if necessary, but
the less liquid you use making your
quince mush now, the sooner the cheese/leather will dry out and you
will be
able to eat it later.
When
you have
finished pureeing all the quince pulp, put it into a
saucepan with an equal amount of jam sugar (sugar with pectin already
added*), turn heat on high, bring rapidly to a boil and boil for 5
minutes while stirring. (You may want to wear gloves, because it will
spit hot flecks
out occasionally.)
Take
off the heat
and pour it into molds. The thinner the molds, the
quicker it will dry out. The deeper the mold, the more impressive it
will look when it finally dries. You could also let it cool off
completely and spread it on waxed paper. Set the molds in a dry,
out-of-the-way spot. After a month, take the "cheeses" out of the molds
and transfer to plates. After that, take them out once a month and turn
over, draining off any liquid.
They
should be ready to eat in a few months to a
year, depending on time:water:size ratio. These pictured below took 5
months.
*To
make jam sugar:
Mix a 2kg/5lb bag of sugar with a small (about half-a-cup) bottle of
liquid pectin (such as Certo). (Can be made ahead of time and will keep
indefinitely. Don't worry if it dries out and turns hard. Just use it
as is.) Or use sugar and a dry pectin such as Sure-jell in the
proportions given on the package instructions. |
