In her excellent book Salt Sugar Smoke, Diana Henry gives a stunning sounding recipe for sweet fig vinegar. Given that the figs from our tree get eaten as soon as they are picked, the chances of accumulating enough figs to make a vinegar seem remote. But I did wonder if the same principles could be used to make a quince vinegar from my quince glut this year.
The resulting vinegar
has a tantalising aroma – almost rose-like, the perfumed apple scent that has
been filling my kitchen since the quinces were picked from the tree. This is a
sweet vinegar, good for salad dressings, adding to sauces, etc.
3 quinces, cored and
chopped
500ml cider vinegar
About 375g sugar
Bake the quinces whole
in a little water for about an hour or until soft, sprinkling a little sugar
over them to tease out the juices.
Chop the quinces
roughly, removing stalk and pips, and pile into a sterilised 1-litre jar. Pour
over the vinegar and squish the quince pieces in the vinegar with a potato
masher if the neck of the jar is wide enough, a or a spoon if it isn’t. Seal
the jar and leave it for about a week or two, turning it over and squishing
again occasionally.
Next, strain the
quince and vinegar through a muslin, jellyag or unused J-Cloth into a measuring
jug. For every 300ml vinegar, weigh out 225g sugar. Pour the vinegar into a
pan, add the requisite amount of sugar and bring to the boil stirring to ensure
the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for five minutes, then leave to cool.
While it’s cooling,
wash and sterilise a jar just big enough to take the vinegar, then pour it in,
seal and keep somewhere cool and dark.
The glut of quinces
from the crop I picked last month has just about been finished – I have
precisely two quinces left. Apart from the quince vinegar here and the quince
jelly and quince cheese, blogged here for the Secret Garden Club, I’ve also used the following recipes to
make quince dishes. My family is going to be so pleased when they are finally
gone!
- Tarte tatin aux poires, ou maintenant aux coings (recipe from Bistro Cooking, Patricia Wells)
- Quince tart, originally from The Cook's Companion, The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen, Stephanie Alexander.
- Quince butter.
- Quince relish, originally from Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume, Silvena Rowe.
- Pear and rocket salad – but with quinces (recipe from Aegean Flavours, Didem Senol).
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