Grated Quince Jam
Quinces, sugar, lemon. Forty minutes over a low flame and the pot goes pink.
- calories
- 260
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 74
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Quinces | 2 lb | about 4 medium, peeled and cored |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 2 cups | roughly two parts fruit to one part sugar by weight |
| Lemon | 1 | juice and a strip of peel; bottled juice works |
| Water | 1/2 cup | |
| Cinnamon stick | 1 | optional |
Method
- Peel and core the quinces at camp and grate them coarsely. Keep the shreds in the lemon juice as you go or they brown fast.
- Put the grated fruit, sugar, lemon juice, peel, and 120 ml of water in the pot. Stir and let it sit ten minutes until the sugar goes wet.
- Bring it to a boil over the stove, then drop the flame as low as it will hold. On a fire, pull the pot to the coals at the edge.
- Simmer 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every few minutes. It will go from pale to amber to a dull pink.
- Test it: a spoonful dropped on a cold plate or the back of a knife should hold its shape and not run.
- Pull it off the heat and fish out the peel and the cinnamon stick. Let it cool in the pot before it goes into a jar.
Quince is the rare fruit that improves for being stuck in a car for three days. It is too hard and too astringent to eat raw, so nothing is lost by hauling it around, and grating solves the other problem: raw quince takes an hour to soften in chunks, but shreds break down in half that.
The color change is the timer. Quince starts off pale and turns pink as it cooks, which is the tannins doing their work, and it is a better signal than a clock over an uneven camp flame. Sugar and acid are what make this keep without a fridge, so do not cut both. If you cut the sugar, eat it within a couple of days.
Packing
Whole quinces travel in a paper bag in the food bin. They bruise less than apples and keep for weeks without a cooler. Sugar goes in a sealed container, pre-measured so you are not scooping by headlamp.
Variations
- Leave the peels in a tea bag or a scrap of cloth in the pot. They carry most of the pectin and the set comes faster.
- A splash of rum off the heat at the end keeps longer and cuts the sweetness.
- Cut the sugar to 1 1/2 cups for something looser to spoon over oatmeal.
https://savoriurbane.com/dulceata-de-gutui-rase-reteta-rapida-naturala-fara-conservanti