Cotignac. It's nothing like Armagnac.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Cotignac.

To make cotignac, peel quinces, cut in quarters, and remove the eye and the pips. Cook them in some decent red wine and then strain. Boil some honey for a long time and skim it, then add the quinces and stir thoroughly. Keep boiling until the honey is reduced by at least half; then toss in hippocras powder and stir until is completely cooled. Then cut into pieces and store.

To make hippocras powder, pound together a quartern of very fine cinnamon, selected by tasting it, half a quartern of choice cassia buds, an ounce of hand-picked, fine white Mecca ginger, an ounce of grains of paradise, and a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg and galingale together. (Menagier de Paris, 1390s)

1000 grams ripe quinces
2 cups red wine
350 grams honey
3/4 teaspoon hippocras powder (see below)

Peel and core quinces, then quarter. Place in a saucepan and cover with wine. Bring slowly to a boil over medium heat and then simmer until the quinces are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain completely, cool somewhat, and force them through a sieve to create a smooth pulp.

Return the quinces to the saucepan and add the honey. Bring to a boil over very low heat and simmer to reduce to jelly. This may take several hours; it is ready when a spoonful dropped onto a plate sets quickly. Stir in the hippocras powder. Pour the mixture into a tray, cool, and cure for several days before cutting into pieces to serve.

I used commercially processed honey, which has already been skimmed of impurities, so I omitted that step.
A quartern is a quarter-part of a measure; since the other measures were in ounces, I applied ounces to those terms and scaled everything down appropriately since I did not need much. That worked out to: 3 parts Ceylon (true) cinnamon; 1.5 parts cassia cinnamon; 12 parts each ginger and grains of paradise; 1 part each nutmeg and galingale, all ground.

What worked: This was delicious. Not too sweet, grainy, or spicy. It was a gorgeous deep crimson and set into a Turkish Delight -like jelly texture. All of it got eaten that day.

What didn't: I kept testing the set and testing and testing. Each time after ten minutes in the fridge, it didn't particularly set. So I boiled it for about four hours, and when it still hadn't particularly set, I said "screw it" and put it in the pan anyway. It then set beautifully over the next week. I boiled off 2/3 of the volume, but I think I could have stopped after half an hour and gotten a lot more output.

Will I make it again? Most assuredly. It would make great gifts.

Comments

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

it has a delicious, slightly flowery sweet taste. I enjoyed it!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm.....

I love quince paste, it's something that goes quickly in our house (it's scary how much quince paste an almost-3-year-old can eat). Some day I'd like to try making my own.

[serendipity17.livejournal.com]

I picked up some quince/vanilla "butter" which was thick applesauce texture. Let me advise *against* vanilla as a flavorant for quince; it was floral on fragrant in a dissonant way. Completely gritty, too, which I wasn't expecting. Thank you for straining your pulp.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, the pulp didn't need straining. It broke down on its own and the "force through a strainer", while done, didn't add anything.