Quince Jam

Quince Jam is a typical winter jam around the Mediterranean, especially Albania & Greece. It’s common to serve it over toast at breakfast or as spoon sweets. We also make cookies with quince jam:).

What is Quince?

Quince is a fruit similar to pear in appearance. In the Mediterranean, quince is mostly grown around Albania, Greece and Turkey. When ripe, quince becomes bright yellow and has a very typical aromatic smell. I took a picture of the quinces I had before making jam, so here it is if you’re not familiar with this fruit.

When I first moved to Florida, I remember looking around the grocery store but I didn’t know what it was called. In Albania we call quinces ftoi or ftonj. Finally, found it online that this fruit was called quince in English.

I went back to the store and asked if they had quince. And they looked and me and asked, you want fifteen of what???? Gotta love Miami! Almost everyone is bilingual or trilingual even, so they thought I was using the Spanish word Quince which means 15 lol.

Let’s get the vocabulary straight for a second about this fruit. I even got questions in Instagram about it when I posted my quince basket.

English – Quince, Spanish – Membrillo, Albanian – Ftoi or Ftonj

Let’s Make Jam – Step by Step

I start by washing and air drying the quince fruit. Then I cut the fruit in slices, remove the core and add the slices in cold water with lemon slices to prevent them from browning.

Keep the peel as it will help with thickening the jam with its natural pectin, instead of having to add pectin to the jam.

Then, I pulse the quince slices in a blender. I don’t use the blend function, I am not trying to make mush. I use a special function called pulse that grates the fruit. Work in batches as the blender might not be able to pulse more than 4-5 fruits at a time.

• Fruit tends to get darker so work as fast as you can.
• Jam needs a bit of lemon zest and 1-2 tbsps of lemon juice. It’s ok to pulse some lemon slices in lieu of zesting a lemon and squeezing.

Then I proceed in adding water and sugar to a pot, place pot on medium heat in stovetop. Add grated quince and mix once the sugar has dissolved. As the mix starts boiling, lower heat to simmer and mix occasionally.

After jam has cooked for about 30 minutes. Turn heat off and let it cool down. Once it has reached room temperature, then I put it to medium heat again and once bubbling, lower heat to simmer.

So this jam requires cooking twice to reach the right consistency.

Rule of thumb – I tend to use 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water for every 4 quince fruits. Add more or less sugar to taste. Quince fruit vary widly in size so adjust accordingly as you cook the jam (more water, more sugar or longer cooking time until you get the right taste and consistency).

Sonila’s Recipe Notes for Quince Jam

Here are some of my notes when making quince jam you can use on top of the recipe below.

• Once you cut quince, its flesh gets brown really fast. I usually slice the fruit and put it in a bowl with cold water and lemon to prevent the fruit from coloring.
• To make spoon sweets with quince, use instructions for jam but instead of blending the quince like I did use a grater that will slice the fruit in matchstick shapes. Keep them short. Also, you have to add more sugar. My jam is not too sweet so for spoon sweets, you need more sugar to caramelize it a bit.
• I keep this jam simple, just water, quince, sugar and lemon. Quince is the star ingredient. But you can add additional ingredients to taste. Back in my native country we added an aromatic plant called barbaroza, we grew it in a pot in our balcony.
• This is a small batch recipe. I don’t use pectin because I boil the quince twice. If stored properly in an airtight jar in the refrigerator, this quantity is good for 2 weeks. I’m not including any canning instructions because this is a small batch. However, if you would like to make a bigger batch, please follow proper canning instructions.
• Since this jam requires very little water, be careful not to burn it. Cook in medium or lower heat. Stir occasionally to get the jam from sticking in your pot.
• Jam will turn pink after cooking. Color gets deeper when stored as well as when you use more sugar.

How Do You Serve Quince Jam?

I usually serve this jam over toast and have it with a cup of coffee. Or I use the jam in cheeseboards when I have friends over. It tastes great with crackers or crostini and some cheese.

Finally, I love adding this jam to my Christmas cookies (recipe is shown with blueberry jam but it tastes great with this quince jam too).

If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin it in Pinterest. Don’t hesitate to contact me for any questions or tag me in social media if you made the jam.

Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.

Mediterranean Sweets:

For more Mediterranean sweet recipes please check the below recipes

• Red Plum Jam
• Apple, Honey Walnut Cake
• Orange & Vanilla Cookies
• Jam Cookies with Sour Cream
• Albanian Baklava with Homemade Phyllo

Note – Recipe was first published in November 2019 and updated with new pictures and video in December 2024. One of the older pictures is below for your reference!! Thank you!