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Oct 21
2010
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We're still working our way through a bountiful crop of quinces, the latest recipe being one for quince chutney.
I was drawn to this recipe, on the For The Love Of Food blog, because of the comparison with mango chutney and the suggestion that it would work well with Indian food, also I have never used juniper berries in a recipe and was keen to see what they were like.
See here for the quince chutney recipe in more detail.
Recipe Costs
£6.00 1.5kg quinces (after peeling and coring) (cost to buy from the market - mine were free)
£0.32 2 onions
£0.37 400g sugar
£0.70 500ml cider vinegar
£0.18 2 tsp juniper berries
£0.01 1 tsp salt
£7.58 Total
£5.05 per kg of chutney (50% the price of buying it.)
It's hard work peeling and coring quinces by hand so I followed the suggestion on the blog and used a food processor to grate them. They were reduced to a scented pile in a matter of minutes.
The onions are finely chopped and added to a preserving pan with the sugar.
I managed to find juniper berries in our local health food shop, rather unsuprisingly they smell of gin. I was aware that gin was flavoured with the berries, but had never really given much thought to what the actual berries would be like.
Two teaspoons full are crushed up and added to the pan, I had wondered if these should be contained within muslin but in the end I added them whole. Time will tell if I shall be picking them out of the finished chutney, I hope they turn out to be paletable.
500ml of cider vinegar is added as well, I have a large 5 litre container of this that I bought from the same health food shop, it's useful to have around for impromptu preserving, and being cheaper in bulk helps keep the cost down.
The ingredients are bought to the boil, stirring ocassionally to make sure they are all mixed well, then simmered for several hours.
After a few hours of simmering the chutney is ready to pot in sterilised jars, it will mature for a few months and keep in a cool dark place for over 12 months.
Once opened it should be kept in the fridge.
Recipe Timings
30 minutes Preparation
2 hours Cooking
15 minutes Bottling
Comments (5)
Mosaic Tree
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quince chutney
just used up a glut of quinces as this looked a great recipe for a chutney...but have i done something wrong...it looks like a big saucepan of red lentils, mushy, with a slight taut taste that leaves adryness in the mouth? Can i add something or is this what its meant to look? thanks
G
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Red lentils is a pretty good description of how this chutney looks, the slightly grainy texture seems to be a peculiarity of the quince.
The dry, taut taste will be the juniper berries, I found that the chutney mellowed with age and this became less after a few months.
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