Why? Because you can! And pickle, and jam, or otherwise celebrate the resurgence of the domestic arts our forebears held so dear. Put on your best apron and step into our kitchen, won't you?
Some jam is touchy, requiring that everything be just so. And others are easy, coming together almost in spite of you. This quince jam is the latter -- a real floozy of a jam that anyone can make.
This is adapted from a Ball guide recipe, adding vanilla bean and lemon juice and mashing down the fruit further to become a beautiful rosy quince jam. The aroma as you cook it alone is nearly worth the work, but the jam itself is Fall at its finest.
On day one of the Punk Domestics trip to Italy in January, 2012, we made three kinds of preserves with Marzia Brigante: Quince jam, pear jam with aromatic spices and savor, a conserve made with apples, pears, quince, nuts and saba.
Enjoy the golden children of the winter season with this jam. Sumptuous, smooth quince paste and tart, bright bits of meyer lemon come together to create quite a lovely flavor.
