Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Quince jam is one of the most rewarding preserves to make at home. Raw quince is hard, pale and almost inedible, but once it is cooked slowly with sugar it softens, turns a deep rose-amber colour and develops a perfume somewhere between apple, pear and honey. The fruit is naturally very high in pectin, so the jam sets firmly with nothing more than sugar, a little glucose and a pinch of citric acid.
In cake work a firm fruit jam like this is worth having in the fridge all year. It spreads cleanly between sponge layers without soaking them, it can be warmed and brushed over a cake before covering, and it works as a filling for tarts, baton pastries and shortcrust bases. The glucose keeps the jam from crystallising and gives it a smooth, glossy body.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 702
Number of Units: 3
Unit Size: 500 ml jar
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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1000 |
2.2 pounds
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Quince
Quince is a hard, fragrant autumn fruit related to the apple and pear. It is far too astringent to eat raw, but it is very high in pectin and turns soft, sweet and pink-amber when cooked with sugar. The weight given here is prepared fruit — peeled, cored and ready to cook.
prepared weight
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peeled, cored and coarsely grated or finely diced |
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B
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1000 |
2.2 pounds
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
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C
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3 |
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Citric Acid
Citric acid is the natural acid found in lemons and other citrus fruit, sold as fine white crystals or powder. A small pinch sharpens the flavour of sugar syrups and helps stop them crystallising during storage.
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D
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100 |
3.5 ounces
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Glucose Syrup
Glucose syrup, also known as confectioner's glucose, is a syrup made from the hydrolysis of starch. Glucose is a sugar. Maize (corn) is commonly used as the source of the starch in the US, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but glucose syrup is also made from potatoes and wheat, and less often from barley, rice and cassava.
Glucose syrup containing over 90% glucose is used in industrial fermentation, but syrups used in confectionery contain varying amounts of glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade, and can typically contain 10% to 43% glucose. Glucose syrup is used in foods to sweeten, soften texture and add volume. By converting some of the glucose in corn syrup into fructose (using an enzymatic process), a sweeter product, high fructose corn syrup can be produced.
43 Baumé
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E
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2 |
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Potassium Sorbate (preservative 202)
Potassium sorbate, listed on labels as preservative 202, is a food-grade powder used in very small amounts to stop mould and yeast growing in jams, pastes and fillings. It is optional at home if the paste is kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
optional
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dissolved in a teaspoon of warm water |
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2105
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.
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STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Wash, peel and core A (quince), then coarsely grate it or cut it into a fine dice. Keep the peels and cores — tie them in a piece of muslin if you want extra pectin in the pot. |
Work quickly, as cut quince browns in the air |
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2 |
Macerate |
Put A and B (quince and caster sugar) in a heavy-based pot, stir well, cover and leave to stand for 2 to 3 hours or overnight in the fridge. |
The sugar draws out the juice and the fruit sits in a syrup |
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3 |
Cook |
Bring the pot slowly to a simmer over low to medium heat, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved, then add the muslin bag of peels and cores if using. Simmer gently, stirring often so it does not catch on the base. |
The fruit softens and the colour deepens from pale yellow to pink-amber, about 45 to 60 minutes |
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4 |
Add |
Stir in D (glucose syrup) and continue cooking. |
Glucose fully dissolved and the jam looks glossy |
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5 |
Finish |
Remove the muslin bag, squeezing it against the side of the pot. Stir in C (citric acid) in the last few minutes of cooking. |
Jam reaches 105°C (221°F), or a spoonful chilled on a cold plate wrinkles when pushed with a finger |
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6 |
Preserve |
Take the pot off the heat, let the jam drop below 60°C (140°F), then stir through E (potassium sorbate) dissolved in a teaspoon of warm water. Leave this out if you plan to keep the jam in the fridge and use it within a few weeks. |
Evenly stirred through, no grains left |
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7 |
Jar |
Ladle the hot jam into clean, hot jars, filling to just below the rim, and seal at once. |
Lids seal down as the jars cool |
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8 |
Cool |
Leave the jars to cool completely at room temperature without moving them. |
The jam firms up to a spreadable, sliceable set as it cools |
Important Notes
The sheet gives no method or notes, so the working above follows standard practice for a high-pectin fruit jam. Raw mixture weighs about 2.1 kg; after cooking you can expect roughly 1.68 kg of finished jam, about three 500 ml jars. Quince sets very firmly on its own, so do not overcook it — stop as soon as the cold-plate test wrinkles. Peels and cores hold the most pectin, so simmering them in a muslin bag gives a stronger set and a deeper colour. Sealed sterilised jars keep in a cool dark cupboard; once opened, keep in the fridge. If you leave out the preservative, store the jam in the fridge from the start and use it within a few weeks. For use between sponge layers, warm the jam slightly and beat it smooth so it spreads without tearing the crumb.
Tools & Arrangements
Vegetable peeler, sharp knife and chopping board, coarse grater, large heavy-based pot, wooden spoon, muslin cloth and string, digital or sugar thermometer, small plate chilled in the freezer for set testing, ladle and jam funnel, three 500 ml jars with lids, sterilised.
