Dry preserve for dessert (and pantry provision)
Quince Paste with Orange Blossom
PreservingDocumented🍯 🍋moyen1 h 30 (excluding drying)
A dense, translucent, amber quince fruit paste, perfumed with orange blossom, cut into diamonds. Sweet and tart, it keeps for a long time and melts slowly in the mouth.
Why this dish? In a bourgeois household, preserves were made for the year. Quince paste, a firm quince candy perfumed with orange blossom, kept for months and was served at dessert or given as a gift — an elegant present that Beaumarchais, as much a businessman as a writer, knew how to appreciate.
When autumn gives its quinces, we let nothing go to waste: here is my merchant's secret! We cook the pulp with its weight in sugar, for a long time, until the spoon traces a furrow that does not close. A hint of orange blossom, we pour the paste into molds, and let it dry in the attic like a manuscript set aside. For months, it delights you at dessert — or is given as a gift, which costs nothing and flatters much.
Ingredients
- •Ripe quinces — a basketful (base fruit)
- •Sugar (or honey) — equal weight to pulp (preservation and sweetness)
- •Orange blossom water — a dash (signature perfume)
- •Lemon juice — a squeeze (acidity and setting)
How it was made : Quince paste, an ancient specialty (notably from Orléans), was a heavily cooked quince candy that kept thanks to its high sugar content. It was poured into boxes made of wood shavings or molds, and appeared at dessert or among year-end gifts. Quince, rich in pectin, sets without gelling agents.
Sources : Menon, *La Cuisinière bourgeoise* (1746) · Nostradamus, *Traité des confitures* (16th c., recipes still in use in the 18th)