Marmelada

We spent all day this past Saturday making marmelada - quince jam - at Manuel's Moms farm.  Quince are a wonderful fruit ... looking like some funky pear/apple with a wonderful subtle aroma of roses.  You can't eat them raw - they have to be cooked.  And when you cook them the fruit turns a lovely soft pink colour.  We love our marmelada to come out like apple sauce/butter.  Perfect in a bowl or spread on toast.  Pure heaven.

First, we washed them to remove the fuzzy coating they have.  Then cut them up, removing the inner core which remains hard even after cooking, and left the skins on.  Into a pot with a bit of water to help them simmer.  Manuel carried the large pots to the greenhouse where an old woodstove was used.  So much easier than trying to fit these pots on a regular stove!

After the fruit softened, we measured sugar to taste (we don't like our marmelada too sweet so we didn't add too much sugar).  A little longer on the woodstove until the sugar was melted and combined.  Then Manuel used a bamix hand mixer to blend the fruit and skins into a smooth concoction before setting the pots outside in the cold Fall air to cool.  Our last step was to put the jam into whatever containers we had - empty yogurt containers, canning jars, plastic ziploc bags.  Since we freeze our jam until we're ready to use it the containers didn't need to be anything special.

Just typing this post I can smell that lovely rosy jam - hmmm.