Quince Cheese – Grandmother’s Recipe is easy homemade quince paste recipe. Goes well with cheese platter but if rolled in sugar makes great Christmas candy!
What is quince?
Quince is pear-shaped, yellow fruit. It is nutritious and best if served cooked. If you would like to learn more about health benefits and it’s history, visit Pritikin .
My grandmother had a tree in her backyard and made compots, jams and cheese to preserve this ancient fruit for long winter days.
What do quinces taste like?
A raw quince has asour, astringent flavorwith tough, grainy textured flesh and thin leathery skin. Its fragrance offers a tempting combination of pear, apple, and citrus. Once cooked, the aroma intensifies, and the quince’s texture softens and transforms from white to yellow or pink.
During quince season that starts at mid-October or first days of November, my grandparents picked the fruits, made quince preserves and placed the rest of fruits on the top of bedroom cupboard to release fragrance all winter long, together with apples.
How to make quince cheese?
Once you wash the quinces, cut them to quarters and remove the core. Cook with sugar until thick. At the end of boiling, you blend the mixture to make fruit paste and pour into rectangular shaped bowl. For sweet version, add spices you prefer and pour the quince paste to the dish. The size of the dish depends on your preferences.
How to serve quince cheese?
If your quince cheese recipe is for cheese plater, you slice it and accompany with Manchego cheese (it is the best combination) or any other hard cheese. Parmigiano or Iberico alike ones are absolutely all right. Have in mind that cheese is cut to slices, not grated.
You may enjoy it with toast also or plain if you love the taste of it.
I always preferred thin layers of membrillo (with gingerbread spices) about one centimeter thick and cut to flower or star shaped candies rolled in sugar. It is amazing rustic, sweet, homemade food so typical to enjoy for Christmas!
To add some special festive flavours you may store your cut quince with rosemary, bay leaves, anise stars or dried vanilla fruits.
As you may noticed, I mentioned both membrillo and quince cheese since there are several names for this vegetarian and gluten free paste. In Portugal, it is marmelada, in France known as pâte de coing, and codonhatinOccitania. Occitania is the southernmost administrative region of metropolitan France excluding Corsica, created from the former regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées.
Now, if you are interested in music, let me mention one amazing band performing songs in ancient occitan language: Lo Còr de la Plana . Take few minutes and enjoy their works!
How to store quince cheese?
If you have small wooden boxes in your pantry, they are the best! Modern versions suggest canning jars or slices packed in freezer.
If you decide to cut various shapes out of your quince paste, once firm, what to do with the leftovers?
We chop them to add winter flavours to apple pies of fig bars. If you prepare hot cocoa drink, you may also drop some pieces into it. It melts and gives such a comforting taste to it!
So, after I cut flowers, I store the leftovers in freezer to use for another idea; or simply have some instead of chocolate or add to fruit salad!
For 27 more quince recipes go here .
Quince Cheese – Grandmother’s Recipe is easy homemade quince paste recipe. Goes well with cheese platter but if rolled in sugar makes great Christmas candy!
CourseDessert
CuisineMediterranean
KeywordQuince Cheese - Grandmother's Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Author 2pots2cook
Ingredients
- 4quinces, peeled, cored, cut to cubes (4 cups)
- 4cups water
- 2 cupssugar
- oil for the dishes
- gingerbread spices, optional
- Sugar to coat the cutouts if making sweet version
Instructions
Wash, peel, core and cut quinces to get four cups. I needed 4 medium sized quinces.
In medium sized pot, bring quinces to boil. It took me5 minutes. Boil the cubes until soft; at least for 10 minutes. Check with fork if softened.
Drain quinces and transfer into blender to get smooth paste. I got 2 ½ cups of silky puree.
Pour quince puree into the pot again and add sugar. Boil for at least one hour, stirring constantly. Your paste should get rich deep crimson colour.
Lightly oil your dish or two if making both savoury and sweet versions.
To serve, cut into squares or wedges and serve with Manchego cheese. To eat, take a small slice of membrillo and spread it on top of a slice of the cheese or toast. Store by wrapping in foil or plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator.
You may store your sweets in opened boxes in airy place (pantry). Put some rosemary or bay leaves or anise aside.
Recipe Notes
- Once finished, I halved our quince paste and poured one half into the dish to serve with cheeses and added ½ tsp gingerbread spices to the other. Mix it well and pour into oiled dish as well and let both batches cool at room temperature. After cooled completely, transfer them into the fridge, covered with foil. Leave it for two days before consuming.
- Other version to store your sweet version: once coated with sugar, keep up to three months in dark and cool place to have for Christmas.
- To speed the process up, you may dry membrillo paste in preheated oven (50 C / 125) for an hour or longer to help it dry out. Remove from oven and let cool.
