Lebanese Quince Jam, A Sweet Winter Recipe

quince jam
They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon: from the Owl and the Pussycat.

Have you met the quince? You might have come across it in a market and passed it by. It’s yellow, but not yielding like an apple. It looks like a bumpy pear. Raw, it’s inedible. What do you do with it?

The simple answer is: cook it. Quinces under heat become sweet and tender, with a divinely fruity aroma. They cook alongside other ingredients in tajines like this vegetable-based one, but the best-loved way to eat them is as jam. This recipe has all of three ingredients.

You just need an interval when you’ll be at home doing other things – time does most of the work for you.

Quince Jam Recipe

2 pounds of quinces

2 cups of sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

A dash of cinnamon

Peel the quince with a vegetable peeler and put in a large bowl and str to the sugar into the fruit and let sit for about 4 hours.

Cook over low heat about 20 minutes, until the jam thickens. Remove any white foam as it rises.

When thick and jammy-like, take off the heat and stir lemon juice in.

Store in sterilized jars or in clean, dry jars in the refrigerator.

Serve on toast, with cheese on the side. A delicious breakfast or snack. A prefect treat for kids while you read them the much-loved Edward Lear poem the Owl and the Pussycat:

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
   In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
   And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
    What a beautiful Pussy you are,
         You are,
         You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
   How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
   But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
   With a ring at the end of his nose,
             His nose,
             His nose,
   With a ring at the end of his nose.
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
   Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
   They danced by the light of the moon,
             The moon,
             The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

More fresh fruit jams here on Green Prophet:

Miriam Kresh
Miriam Kreshhttps://www.greenprophet.com/
Miriam Kresh is an American ex-pat living in Israel. Her love of Middle Eastern food evolved from close friendships with enthusiastic Moroccan, Tunisian and Turkish home cooks. She owns too many cookbooks and is always planning the next meal. Miriam can be reached at miriam (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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