April 4, 2025 • 5 mins
Quince paste, or membrillo, is a sweet, thick fruit preserve made from quinces, sugar and lemon juice. Popular in Spain and Portugal, it has a firm, jelly-like texture and a deep amber colour. Traditionally served with cheese, especially Manchego, its floral aroma and tart-sweet flavour creates a perfect pairing.
Make one sandwich tin of paste
Ingredients
- 6 medium-sized quince
- 1 ¼ cup (or ¾ of the weight of your cooked & pureed quince)
- Juice of 2-3 lemons
Method
- Peel and quarter the quinces. Place in a large baking dish, half cover with water, cover with foil and bake at 180 C for 2 hours or until very soft. Drain the liquid (this can be kept to flavour soda water etc).
- When fruit is cool enough to handle, remove the core with a spoon. Puree the fruit in a food processor or blender.
- Weigh this, then spoon into a saucepan with ¾ the amount of sugar. For example, I had 1.5kg puree so added about 1.1kg sugar. Squeeze in lemon juice (about one lemon per cup of cooked quince).
- Bring to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes to one hour, or until it reduces to a thick paste. Stir it as often as you pass the stove and watch it carefully once it begins to darken as it will want to ‘catch’ on the bottom of the pot. The quince paste is done when it is a darker red-brown and a wooden spoon drawn through the mix leaves a distinct trail that takes several seconds to close up.
- Pour the paste into a baking paper-lined tin, smoothing the surface into an even layer. Allow to set and cool to room temperature.
- Refrigerate quince paste, uncovered, until cold, then cut paste into squares, using a hot knife. Store covered.
- Serve with cheese.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from news talks, they'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Fourteen to ten non news talks, there'd be Nicki Wicks,
our cook is in the kitchen for us this morning,
killed a Niki oh.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Cura, and my heart is the fluss up with what
we're talking about this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh okay, I thought, oh, you've got some bo I
thought you were gonna see some saucy golss or something. No,
that's okay. I'm equally excited about sweet things, So there's
no judgment from me. Just for a moment there, I thought, Oh, okay, Nikki,
where we go with this?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's all right?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Well, I'm in love and it's true quince Okay, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Look, I feel like people don't really know what to
do with quince's even, you know about a quen's pastment,
you know? Is that for you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
And I think that's completely fair. You know, if you
have a quince tree, I mean actually grow really well.
They've got a beautiful blossom on them, but you end
up with these fruit that are rock hards, and the
only the only way you can tell that they are
ripe is by the yellow hue to their furry skins.
And they seem like the most inhospitable fruit in the
(01:18):
world because they, you know, they hard to chop up.
What do you do with them? One quince goes a
long way. But I'm here to tell you that there
are so many things you can do, and that the
easiest thing to do with them is first of all,
to peel them with a potato peeler or vegetable peela.
Chop them in half super hard. You need a big
knife and a strong arm. Chop them into quarters. Chuck
(01:41):
them in a dish or a pot or a roast.
I do them in the oven. I roast them, you know.
Fill that dish with a little, you know, so half
full with water. Don't worry about all this business about
how they brown off and this, that and the other.
Put them in a scidulated I lemon juice water. To me,
that's all a bit of a pilava. You're going to
roast the heck out of them anyway, you know what
I mean. And so, and they go this kind of
(02:03):
creamy caramel color, and you think, oh, they don't look
like Nikki's ones in the book. But keep on cooking them,
and they become this beautiful, rusty red color, and that
is when you know that they are truly cooked.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I make them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I do them like that, That's what I do. I
roast them in the oven for maybe one or two
hours at one eighty and then I call them. Only
then do I attempt to take the core out, because
the core is really embedded in the flesh and it's
it's really hard to do when they're you know, when
they're raw. So wait till that, wait till they cooked,
and then spoon that core out, and then you've got
this beautiful fruit to either use with your musally in
(02:37):
the morning, or I'm going to say to you make
quince paste, otherwise known as a membrio, which is a
really beautiful thick preserve that they really favor in Spain
and Portugal. So that you have a little paste or
a little sort of square of this jelly and you
serve that with beautiful sharp cheeses like manchego, which is
(02:58):
a sheep cheese or parmesan or something like that, and
so absolutely beautiful. So I photographed these the other day.
The photographer, look, you know, I mean he was kind
of into it, but then he had the cheese with
the quidz paste. It was like, oh my god, this
is amazing. So all right, here we go. So once
you have baked them off and cord them, you then
(03:19):
drain all the liquid off. You can use that for
something else, mix it with some soda water or something
like that. It's delicious. Take your fruit and you want
to pure it, and then you want to weigh it.
And why you want to weigh it? I mean you
could measure it out. I suppose you could do a
cup by cup, but then you want to find out
and you know, I had about one point five pages
of pure, and I wanted to use seventy five percent
(03:41):
of that amount in sugar. Okay, So that's kind of
what it is. You got a cup, you want a
cup of pure, You want to use three quarters of
a cup of sugar, and good squeeze of lemon juice.
They trip. There is also about one juicy lemon per
cup of quiz paste. And then you start simmering at
jack and you simmer it for about forty five minutes,
(04:02):
maybe to an hour, and as I say, it'll go
through those beautiful color changes, and it'll also thicken up.
It spits everywhere so do it in a high sided
pot if you can, and use a long handled spoon
to give it a stir every now and again as
you go past, and just on a sort of slow
to medium, i'd say, and it'll all sort of blip
blip blip blip away in your kitchen and it's so lovely.
(04:25):
And then pour it into a sandwich tin that you've
lined with perhaps some greastproof paper and let it set
in the fridge. I let it cure in the fridge
uncovered for you know, maybe even a week. You don't
have to do that, but just I like the consistency
of it. And then you cut it into a little
squeeze wrap it up. It'll keep for over a year.
(04:45):
Just put it in an air tight container in the fridge,
and every now and again you take a few little
slices or squeeze off it to sell with cheese, and
it's just exquisite. Gets better over time.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, a year out impressive too, I mean, I know
with longer.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, that's great, it's great.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean it's got all that sugar in it, and
it's got loads pecked in it and the quints, so
you know, it preserves you know, and keeps really well,
and it's the nicest gift in the world. I think.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, you go see why my heart was flutter. No,
I can't see.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I can't see why your heart was a flutter. I
think all of our heart fluttered this morning. Yeah, thank
you for that. All right. We will put that recipe
for Nicky's Quint's paste up on the News talk'sb website.
Everything from the show goes up there, so you never
need to worry about scribbling down notes or anything like
that texting yourself. Don't worry about it. News Talk ZB
dot co dot INMZ forward slash Jack is the place
(05:36):
to go, and just as soon as it's been on
the radio, we make sure it's on the website as well.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news Talks dB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from news talks, they'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Fourteen to ten non news talks, there'd be Nicki Wicks,
our cook is in the kitchen for us this morning,
killed a Niki oh.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Cura, and my heart is the fluss up with what
we're talking about this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh okay, I thought, oh, you've got some bo I
thought you were gonna see some saucy golss or something. No,
that's okay. I'm equally excited about sweet things, So there's
no judgment from me. Just for a moment there, I thought, Oh, okay, Nikki,
where we go with this?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's all right?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Well, I'm in love and it's true quince Okay, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Look, I feel like people don't really know what to
do with quince's even, you know about a quen's pastment,
you know? Is that for you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
And I think that's completely fair. You know, if you
have a quince tree, I mean actually grow really well.
They've got a beautiful blossom on them, but you end
up with these fruit that are rock hards, and the
only the only way you can tell that they are
ripe is by the yellow hue to their furry skins.
And they seem like the most inhospitable fruit in the
(01:18):
world because they, you know, they hard to chop up.
What do you do with them? One quince goes a
long way. But I'm here to tell you that there
are so many things you can do, and that the
easiest thing to do with them is first of all,
to peel them with a potato peeler or vegetable peela.
Chop them in half super hard. You need a big
knife and a strong arm. Chop them into quarters. Chuck
(01:41):
them in a dish or a pot or a roast.
I do them in the oven. I roast them, you know.
Fill that dish with a little, you know, so half
full with water. Don't worry about all this business about
how they brown off and this, that and the other.
Put them in a scidulated I lemon juice water. To me,
that's all a bit of a pilava. You're going to
roast the heck out of them anyway, you know what
I mean. And so, and they go this kind of
(02:03):
creamy caramel color, and you think, oh, they don't look
like Nikki's ones in the book. But keep on cooking them,
and they become this beautiful, rusty red color, and that
is when you know that they are truly cooked.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I make them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I do them like that, That's what I do. I
roast them in the oven for maybe one or two
hours at one eighty and then I call them. Only
then do I attempt to take the core out, because
the core is really embedded in the flesh and it's
it's really hard to do when they're you know, when
they're raw. So wait till that, wait till they cooked,
and then spoon that core out, and then you've got
this beautiful fruit to either use with your musally in
(02:37):
the morning, or I'm going to say to you make
quince paste, otherwise known as a membrio, which is a
really beautiful thick preserve that they really favor in Spain
and Portugal. So that you have a little paste or
a little sort of square of this jelly and you
serve that with beautiful sharp cheeses like manchego, which is
(02:58):
a sheep cheese or parmesan or something like that, and
so absolutely beautiful. So I photographed these the other day.
The photographer, look, you know, I mean he was kind
of into it, but then he had the cheese with
the quidz paste. It was like, oh my god, this
is amazing. So all right, here we go. So once
you have baked them off and cord them, you then
(03:19):
drain all the liquid off. You can use that for
something else, mix it with some soda water or something
like that. It's delicious. Take your fruit and you want
to pure it, and then you want to weigh it.
And why you want to weigh it? I mean you
could measure it out. I suppose you could do a
cup by cup, but then you want to find out
and you know, I had about one point five pages
of pure, and I wanted to use seventy five percent
(03:41):
of that amount in sugar. Okay, So that's kind of
what it is. You got a cup, you want a
cup of pure, You want to use three quarters of
a cup of sugar, and good squeeze of lemon juice.
They trip. There is also about one juicy lemon per
cup of quiz paste. And then you start simmering at
jack and you simmer it for about forty five minutes,
(04:02):
maybe to an hour, and as I say, it'll go
through those beautiful color changes, and it'll also thicken up.
It spits everywhere so do it in a high sided
pot if you can, and use a long handled spoon
to give it a stir every now and again as
you go past, and just on a sort of slow
to medium, i'd say, and it'll all sort of blip
blip blip blip away in your kitchen and it's so lovely.
(04:25):
And then pour it into a sandwich tin that you've
lined with perhaps some greastproof paper and let it set
in the fridge. I let it cure in the fridge
uncovered for you know, maybe even a week. You don't
have to do that, but just I like the consistency
of it. And then you cut it into a little
squeeze wrap it up. It'll keep for over a year.
(04:45):
Just put it in an air tight container in the fridge,
and every now and again you take a few little
slices or squeeze off it to sell with cheese, and
it's just exquisite. Gets better over time.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, a year out impressive too, I mean, I know
with longer.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, that's great, it's great.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean it's got all that sugar in it, and
it's got loads pecked in it and the quints, so
you know, it preserves you know, and keeps really well,
and it's the nicest gift in the world. I think.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, you go see why my heart was flutter. No,
I can't see.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I can't see why your heart was a flutter. I
think all of our heart fluttered this morning. Yeah, thank
you for that. All right. We will put that recipe
for Nicky's Quint's paste up on the News talk'sb website.
Everything from the show goes up there, so you never
need to worry about scribbling down notes or anything like
that texting yourself. Don't worry about it. News Talk ZB
dot co dot INMZ forward slash Jack is the place
(05:36):
to go, and just as soon as it's been on
the radio, we make sure it's on the website as well.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news Talks dB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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