Skip to main content
Dessert

Quince Jelly

A preserved quince jelly made by boiling quince fruit with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Quince Jelly

Quince Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pare, quarter, core, and weigh ripe quinces.

  2. Throw the quince pieces into the water in which they will be boiled.

  3. Add one pint of water per pound of fruit.

  4. Simmer gently for 3/4 to 1½ hour until the fruit is a little broken but not so long as to redden the juice, which should be very pale.

  5. Turn the whole into a jelly‑bag or strain the liquid through a fine cloth, letting it drain closely without pressure.

Make the jelly

  1. Weigh the juice.

  2. Put the juice into a clean preserving pan.

  3. Boil quickly for twenty minutes.

  4. Take from the fire and stir in sugar until it is entirely dissolved (twelve ounces of sugar per pound of juice, or fourteen ounces if the fruit is very acid).

  5. Keep constantly stirred and thoroughly cleared from scum for ten to twenty minutes longer, or until it jellies strongly when falling from the skimmer.

  6. Pour directly into glasses or moulds.

Alternative finish

  1. If using equal weight of juice and sugar, boil for twenty to thirty minutes.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Quinces (in the method)
Provide the pectin and tart flavour that allow the juice to set into a jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
Water
Extracts the juice from the fruit during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering the fruit. Simmering only until the fruit is just broken keeps the juice pale; over-cooking reddens it. Draining without pressure keeps the jelly clear, since squeezing pushes cloudy solids into the juice.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes