How to dry quinces and make quince cordial.

by | Apr 29, 2020 | Harvests, In the kitchen

In March it’s hard not to be gluttonous. It’s hard for me to walk away from a quince tree with only a small amount of quinces. Instead I have this hungry energy as though the tree I have found is the only tree in the world and these are the only quinces I will ever find, ever. And so I always harvest more and too much and I have to learn, I really do need to learn, not to be so hungry.

A jar of dried quinces. Some will be snacked on as they are and others will be cut up into smaller pieces and mixed with home made granola.

But for now I have not learned. So after making vast quantities of quince paste which I will share with farm stay guests, with friends and family and use for bartering, a full basket of quinces remained. I decided that I would dry them.

I used three very large metal bowls and filled the bowls 3/4 of the way with finely cut quince.

I left the skin on and cut them thinly, placed them in a very large bowl and added raw sugar until they were well covered. I added lemon juice because acidity always helps to preserve fruit although quinces are already very acidic.

I coated the quinces in raw sugar and added lemon juice. After 48 hours the sugar had wicked water from the fruit. All of the liquid in this photo has been released by the quinces.

I left them in the bowl covered for two days. Over this time the sugar wicks most of the water out and you end up with a really delicious quince cordial.

I strained the juice and bottled it in these fantastic beer bottles and placed the bottles of quince cordial in a pot big enough to cover them with water well and boiled them for 20mins. Once cooled they were placed in our larder to be enjoyed with warm liqueurs in winter and cool drinks in summer.

Strained quinces were placed on dehydrator racks.

The quince pieces I’d sliced were placed on my dehydrator trays, touching but not overlapping and were dried for between 8-10 hours.

Dehydrating can be tricky for a home preserver not because it is hard, as it is very easy to do, but because you never quite know what you can get away with. How dry should you make the fruit. If you want to keep the fruit for a year as I often do then I tend to dry it very well. If you want to keep it for a few months you can leave a bit of softness to it. It’s trial and error.

The sweet lemony quince juice was strained and bottled.
These bottles are used over and over again. Often with elderberry juice and now with quince cordial.
Dried quinces ready for packing into beautiful jars.

The really great thing about home drying is that your fruit is sulphur dioxide free, in fact this is not the only great thing. What I love, what I really love about all this food preserving is the culture of it. The adventures that come with it. The trip in the car (or bike preferably) looking for trees, or the discussions with friends, exchanging favourite spots. Choosing which basket to bring, something wide enough so that the fruit does not sit on top of each other, the excitement of being offered a tree by a friend on Instagram with an invitation to harvest (thank you Part Time In Kingston), the possible recipes and exchange of recipes with friends and friends yet to make. The colours that fill my larder, the sweet fragrance of fruit and the enduring flavours through winter.

I really, really love this food culture and I am so appreciative of my cultural inheritance.

6 Comments

  1. Chang Tan Khin Sar

    I also interest to grow quince. what kind of method did you dry? At sun or at fire!
    thank you

    Reply
    • Mara

      Hello Chang. We air dried them by hanging them in our warmest room. Just hand them somewhere warm and squeeze them every few days.

      Reply
  2. Debbie Kuhn

    Thanx for quince drying recipe…… i have some in dehydrator, some on trays in the oven. I may not have used enough sugary as I just got two small bottles of juice…..from about 7 quinces sliced up. Ibdid add lemon juice from 3 lemons.

    Thanks again, for photis too.

    Debbie

    Reply
    • Mara

      you are very welcome.

      Reply
  3. Sheila bentley

    I have a quince tree and last year I made bottles of quince jelly nice

    Reply
    • Mara

      Quince jelly is soooo lovely! Thank you for sharing.

      Reply

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