Quince preserve

Azerbaijanis love to eat jam and fruit preserves with tea. Jam is usually eaten on its own by the spoonful, rather than spread on bread, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it on your toast too. News.Az is grateful to Gullu Cahangir for allowing us to use her recipe for quince preserve, taken from her informative website Azerifood.com.

Preparation time: 120 min
Cooking time: 2 days
Serves: 6-7

Ingredients

• 1 kg/2.2 lbs sliced quince (4 large quince should suffice)
• 1 kg/2.2 lbs sugar
• 1 glass of water

Preparation

• Wash the quince but do not peel. Divide each fruit into four parts and remove the pips and any stringy fibres. Cut into pieces around 3-4 cm long and 3 cm wide, or into smaller slices if preferred. Weigh the prepared quince so that their equivalent in sugar can be added.
• Dissolve 1 kg of granulated sugar in 1 glass of water (1 kg of fruit to 1 kg of sugar and 1 glass of water) and bring to the boil. As soon as the syrup comes to the boil, pour it over the prepared quince. Use a large spoon to stir the quince, making sure that all pieces of the fruit are covered in the syrup.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• Return to the heat, bring back to the boil and simmer for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
• Repeat the procedure, bringing the fruit to the boil 5 times in all.
• The finished preserves should have a thick, jelly-like consistency and warm red colour.
• Place the preserves into sterilized jars and seal.