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Sunday, November 10, 2002

I didn't put enough sugar in the first shot at the quince-persimmon jelly and it was a total disaster. It reeked of honey and didn't set. I dumped out all the jars, added two cups of water, some more lemon juice, and - curses! - a box of Sure-Jell pectin. No natural set on this batch. When it started boiling, two additional cups of sugar went in  and a strange thing happened - the overwhelming honey smell was overtaken by one of tangerine zest. Now, will it set? (It's in the canner right now) 5:55:39 PM    comment []

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand on the edge of the sand They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon. Quince with Orange Blossom Honey             A scant 3 pounds [1.3 kg] apple quince or pear quince, or 1 ¾ pounds [800 g] net 1 ¼ cups [300 g/30 cl] quince juice 2 ¾ cups [600 g] granulated sugar 1 ½ cups [350 g] orange blossom honey Zest of 1 orange Juice of 1 lemon   Wipe the quince with a towel to remove their slight fuzz. Rinse them in cold water, peel them, and remove the stem, any remaining blossoms, and hard parts. Cut them in quarters, remove the center and the seeds, and cut the quarters into julienne (Cores, skin, and seeds can be used to make quince Juice.)   In a preserving pan, combine the julienned quince with sugar, orange blossom honey, orange zest, lemon juice, and the quince juice. Bring to a simmer and pour into a ceramic bowl. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.   Next day, bring this preparation to a boil in a preserving pan. Skim and keep cooking on high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring gently. Skim if need be and return to a boil. Check the set. Put the jam into jars and seal.   (Recipe by Christine Ferber, from Mes Confitures)   (update 7:43p - think all the scanner artifacts have been cleansed from this OCR now)   10:18:04 AM    comment []

From The Worldwide Gourmet: Rich in tannin and pectin, the quince must always be cooked in order to achieve its delicate and flavourful potential. Its flesh is firm, tough, acidic and astringent and it gives off a strong odour, which is passed on to everything with which it comes in contact. In Europe it is used to make jam, candy and liquor. The word "marmalade" comes from the Portuguese "inannelo" or "marmelo," meaning quince. In fact, until the end of the 18th century, marmalade was made almost exclusively of quinces! That means I won't be adding any pectin to the jelly. Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures has several quince recipes, the most exotic-sounding of which is Quince with Nostradamus Spices (that would be cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom) and none of which has another source of pectin. The basis for my recipe will be Quince with Orange Blossum Honey, since the persimmon jelly recipe all over the web uses honey. Recipes for both persimmon and quince jellies call for the juice of a lemon, but Ferber's quince recipe also has orange zest to complement the orange blossom honey. Since I couldn't find any orange blossom honey, I'll be using Mountain Ridge Pure Raw Honey (the company is based in Winston-Salem, but the label says "raw honey from USA and Argentina" - so that ridge might be on the Andes). Without the orange blossom, there's no real need to use orange zest, so I'm substituting tangerine zest. The juice/honey/sugar proportions will stick to those in the Ferber recipe, which I'll post a little later. 10:03:33 AM    comment []

Another coincidence from yesterday: about 6 months ago, Kroger had a whole bunch of "Flavo-Injector" food syringes on sale for 99 cents. I picked up a handful, figuring to give them away as little presents. I put them away "somewhere". Well, a few weeks ago my friend Dawn had picked up one of those glorious Ron Popiel Showtime rotisseries. She'd gotten the "Junior" version, which doesn't come with a syringe. I told her I had a few "somewhere". Unfortunately, the secret hideout hid them all too well until yesterday. The appliance bulb in my oven had burned out and I needed one to provide the warmth for the first stage of fish smoking, which is forming the pellicle. Guess what, right up there on the closet shelf with the appliance bulbs was a Flavo-Injector! I took it along with me to the Armadillo (site of the pre-concert rendezvous) and, of course, Dawn was there and very happy to have it. The beeper on my remote thermometer woke me up in the middle of the night by emitting a series of 8 beeps at intervals. I turned off the thermometer itself and the remote before going back to sleep. I knew it couldn't have been the high temperature alert because the smoker had been stabilized at 132F before putting the pellicular fish into it 'round midnight. This morning, I got up and changed the batteries, yup, that was it. Not to make too much of it, like this might be the Third Sign of the Ersatz Second Coming, but I had just picked up the batteries on a whim while shopping Saturday morning. Criswell predicted all this... 6:43:03 AM    comment []