A Recipe That Is Quince and Easy

Some recipes really come out by accident, don't they?

I was recently asked by a cooking school coordinator to think of a recipe with quince paste because they have so much of it in stock. Quince paste. Before I go on, I will admit that I was not entirely familiar with this fruit but I have tried it as a kid. But certainly during my time at George Brown it was never brought up. Suffice to say, it is a rare fruit with a distinct flavour.

Without getting really boring, quince is a yellow shaped, pear looking fruit that can be eaten raw, but not entirely recommended unless very ripe. It is extremely sour and very hard to even bite into, so it is best if it is cooked. Once cooked, it takes on an orange hue. You can try buying the fruit but it is rare and it can be difficult to find. However, you can buy it often in a paste form. Or even sometimes in jams. If you can't find quince paste or jam, you can use marmalade as a substitute for this recipe.

In fact, I learned that the origin of marmalade comes from quince jam (the Portuguese word for quince is marmelo, leading to the now famous preserve) that was made in Portugal and sent to England. I imagine there has been changes to the classic jam but whatever. You get the idea.

Here is a simple recipe that I found several years ago but altered over time. I have never served this at the golf course I work at, but at home I do.

Quince Glazed Pork Chops

Handful of mustard seeds
Juice of 2 Lemons
200 ml or about 2/3 of a cup quince paste
100 ml Dijon mustard
100 ml White wine
1 Red Onion, diced
A Few Twigs of Rosemary or Thyme
8 Pork Chops


Preheat an oven to 350°F.

Combine the mustard seeds, quince paste and lemon juice and whisk until quince is broken up. Add mustard, white wine, onion, rosemary, salt and pepper. Pour half of the mustard concoction on the bottom of some kind of baking dish. I don't know your inventory so use whatever you got. Lay the chops in da dish and cover with remainder of the glazey glaze.

Then bakey-bake the pork for about a half an hour. If you bought the chops bone in,it takes another 5 - 10 minutes to cook them. However, I like a little pink in pork chops, but you can cook them to whatever doneness you desire.

Serve with some kind of starch. Like Herb Roasted Potatoes!

Serves 8.

Variation: use marmalade instead of quince.

A Humble Chef's tip: you can cover the pork for half the cooking time to speed it up. Then uncover to caramelize the glaze.