I’ve heard about quinces but have never had them before myself, so when my friend Dominique gave me a bagful I had to read up about what do do with them before making this poached quince recipe. They are a peculiar sort of fruit: you can’t just pick and eat one raw – you need to cook them for a long time before you eat them. However they are a great source of fibre and also high in vitamin C.
They are ready to use when firm with a pale yellow skin, but they may still have some fuzziness on the skin – you can brush this off. The fruit will ripen in a few days if left at room temperature. I had a few that were a deeper yellow and used them for this poached quince recipe. They have an amazing floral smell but the real magic is that although they are pale coloured, after you have cooked them for quite some time they mysteriously turn a gorgeous deep red colour (cooking turns the tannins into anthocyanins – reddish pigments).
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
3 quinces
Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, forming a syrup.
Cut the quinces into quarters, peel and core. Then cut each quarter in half again.
Put the slices into a Pyrex casserole dish and pour over the syrup.
Cover the casserole dish with a lid or seal tightly with foil.
Bake for about 3 hours at 160C until the quinces are very tender and fruit and syrup are both deep red.
Serve fruit with icecream, yoghurt or custard according to your preference or enjoy poached quinces with your breakfast muesli.
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- Brush any remaining fuzz off your quinces
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- Choose quinces with a good yellow colour
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- Peel and slice quinces, cover with syrup
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- Cover and bake for 3 hours
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- Deep ruby red quinces
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- Serve fruit with icecream or to your preference
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- Dominique’s Quince Tree
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- Dominique’s Quince Tree
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