Homemade Quince Jam

When I bought my house, there was a Flowering Quince Bush in my back yard. It is stunning in spring.

This year, I decided to make quince jam from the fruit. As you know from my post on Friday, I promised to start cooking more now that I can reach all the jars. Although this did not call for any of the ingredients in the jars, I still think it should count. Right?

Since this was my first foray into making marmalade, my first stop was Google. There, I found a recipe for Persian Quince Jam on Beats Eats. The picture posted was so beautiful that I chose this recipe. If you are planning to pin the picture below, please click on the picture or the link in order to pin from the original page.

The first task was to peel, slice and core the quince. Well actually, before I did that, I took a couple of pictures of the fruit. I staged the pics with some fresh lavender from the garden. Really, I was just stalling.

Now, pictures taken, it was time to peel, slice and core.

This task turned out to be much more difficult than I was expecting. The quince were quite hard, even the ones that were quite ripe.

They also have a LOT of seeds.

I decided that if I ever make jam again, I am going to do it when Douglas is at home so that he can slice and core. He cares a lot less about keeping his digits intact than I do. In fact, he has already chopped a few bits off his, while my dainty fingers are completely whole and unscathed. I would like to keep it that way.

In the end, I found that it was easier to use the tip of a really sharp knife to do the job.

Finally, all of the quince was ready for cooking and all of my fingers were free of wounds. It was an exciting moment.

The slices were set in the pot to boil. The first step of Beats Eats recipe called for little stirring in order to keep the slices intact.

Despite how hard my fruit was when I was trying to cut it, these same rock-hard wedges, completely dissolved within minutes of being placed on the stove. I swear I did not stir! It could be due to the fact that my fruit came from a flowering quince rather than a true quince bush? Or maybe it was that I sliced the pieces too thinly? For whatever reason, my jam was going to be very different than that in the inspiration picture.

Rather than give up on my experiment, I soldiered on like a true kitchen warrior. Not having a damkoni, I folded a clean kitchen towel over the pot. This caused Douglas great concern when he came home, but it seemed safe enough and no fires were started.

My jam needed to cook for a couple of hours longer than the original recipe called for. In the end, I took off the towel in order to allow the water to boil off quicker. The marmalade was a beautiful red color at that point so I figured it could not hurt.

The pot that you can see on the left burner was the water that I was boiling to sterilize the jar that I was about to use.

Finally, here is my first ever jar of jam. I did not worry about sealing it perfectly because we started eating it that very day and I did not make enough to store for future use.

According to my investigation, it is ok to put the jam directly in the refrigerator and not worry about sealing it completely. However, I am not an expert, and I would hate for you or anyone else to get sick while following my advice. Therefore, you should consult an expert yourself before making your own preserves in order to avoid a real jam. Get it? Ok. That was lame.

My jam came out tart but delicious. I only added one cup of sugar, but I like things more sour than sweet. You can make your marmalade to your own liking.

While I was shooting the pictures, a bad cat jumped up on the table to investigate. She did not give it a good review, wrinkling up her little nose at the first sniff. I am not sure if you will take her opinion into consideration, but I try to provide you with all feedback and not only the positive reviews. The good news is that all of the humans that have tested my jam have approved.

In conclusion, this project was much easier than I expected, and I plan to make a bigger batch soon with the last of the quince. Hurrah for a successful experiment!

Happy Homemaking!