Cooked Quince with Raisins

I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted quince before, but I know it is the first time I have cooked with them. At first glance I thought the basket was full of pears at the farmers market. After another look I noticed that they were all golden-yellow and a bit larger than normal. I bought one which almost weighed a pound itself and grabbed the nearby flyer with this recipe on it. After some small talk with the cashier as I was leaving she called out to me it’s always fun to try new foods.

Wikipedia describes quince as being part of the apple and pear family. It depends on the variety but the type I had felt very hard and was too sour to eat raw, actually inedible. According to the article they are high in pectin and used mainly to make jams and jellies. The recipe I acquired used fresh lemon, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, crystallized ginger and raisins. The end result was delicious, I cooked the quince down until parts of the flesh almost melted and turned pink. This is a fruit that I definitely would cook with again.

Recipe is from, McClendon's Select Farmers market.

Ingredients:

4 quince
1/2 lemon, juice and peel
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
10 whole cloves
1 crystallized piece of ginger
1/2 cup raisins

To prepare:

Peel quince, cut in half and core. Cut into bite sized pieces.

*If too hard to cut through raw, place whole quince into a pot of boiling water, cover and simmer about 25 minutes.*

Place quince into a large pot with the lemon juice, lemon peel, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and raisins. Cook on low heat stirring occasionally about 20 minutes.

When quince is done cooking, they will turn a pinkish, cranberry color.