Quince Paste (Spanish Membrillo, Portuguese Marmelada, Italian Cotognata)

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Quince paste, or Spanish membrillo, is what you get when you cook quinces down with sugar and lemon until they’re firm enough to slice. It’s sweet, tart, and floral, and a thin slice of it on a wedge of Manchego is one of the classic pairings of Spanish cooking.

Quince paste goes by a lot of names. It’s membrillo in Spain, marmelada in Portugal, cotognata in Italy, and codonyat in Catalonia. In England, people call it quince cheese.

It’s an old way to keep quinces, too. The word marmalade comes from marmelo, the Portuguese word for quince, and the first marmalades were quince pastes much like this one.

Most raw quinces are hard and too astringent to eat out of hand. Long cooking changes that, as the fruit softens and sweetens and slowly turns a deep red.

Quince paste cooks down much further than a fruit butter like apple butter or maple whiskey pear butter, until it holds its shape on the plate.

This recipe follows the quince paste from America’s Test Kitchen, which finishes the paste in the oven. If you have more quinces than one batch needs, try poached quince or a quince cake. They also make a good quince jam or quince wine, and there are 50+ quince recipes to choose from.

Ingredients for Quince Paste

Quince paste takes just three ingredients, plus water for cooking the fruit.

Regular quinces are the usual choice. You can also use flowering quince, or the leftover pulp from quince jelly, with the changes in the Variations below.

• Quinces: Pick ripe quinces that have turned fully yellow and smell fragrant. Weigh them whole, before coring, on a kitchen scale, since quinces vary a lot in size. There’s no need to peel them, because the strainer catches the skins later on.
• Sugar: Plain granulated sugar. It sweetens the paste and helps it firm up enough to slice.
• Lemon juice: Fresh or bottled. It adds a tart edge that balances all that sugar.
• Water: For simmering the quinces. You’ll boil some of the cooking liquid down and stir it back into the paste.

How to Make Quince Paste

Most of the time here is hands-off. Plan on about 4 1/2 hours of cooking, plus time to cool on the counter and at least 4 hours in the fridge.

You’ll need a large Dutch oven that can go in the oven, a food processor, and a fine-mesh strainer, plus an 8-inch square pan for setting the paste.

Quarter and Core the Quinces

Rinse the quinces and rub off any fuzz. Cut each one into quarters, then cut out the core and seeds. Quince is hard and spongy, so use a heavy, sharp knife and take your time.

Leave the skins on, and cut out any bruised or dark spots as you go. Cut quince browns quickly, but that’s fine, since the paste darkens as it cooks.

Simmer Until Soft

Put the quinces in a large Dutch oven with the water. Cut a round of parchment paper to fit inside the pot, and lay it right on the water. It keeps the fruit under the surface while it cooks.

Bring it to a boil over high heat. Then cover the pot, turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, until a knife slides into the quinces easily.

Drain and Reduce the Liquid

Drain the quinces in a colander set over a large bowl, saving the cooking liquid.

Pour the liquid back into the empty pot and boil it, uncovered, over medium-high heat until it’s down to about 3 cups. That takes about 12 to 15 minutes.

Purée the Quinces

While the liquid boils down, purée the cooked quinces in a food processor for about 45 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. They’ll still be hot, so handle them carefully.

Keep going until the purée is completely smooth, with no lumps left.

Press It Through a Strainer

Scrape the purée out of the processor bowl with a spatula, and set a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl.

Press the purée through the strainer a little at a time, using the spatula to push it along. Work in small batches, so the strainer doesn’t clog.

Toss the bits of skin and fiber left in the strainer.

What goes through is silky, and it gives the finished paste its smooth texture.

Cook the Paste on the Stove

Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan, line it with parchment paper, and set it aside.

Stir the purée into the reduced cooking liquid in the pot, then add the sugar and lemon juice. Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring now and then.

It’s ready for the oven once it has darkened, thickened, and started to spatter.

Finish It in the Oven

Move the uncovered pot to the oven, and bake it for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Every 15 minutes, stir it and scrape down the sides with a silicone spatula, so it cooks evenly and doesn’t scorch.

It’s done when it has turned deep red to rusty brown and the spatula leaves a clear trail across the bottom of the pot. Go by the trail, since the color varies.

Set the Paste

Scrape the hot paste into the lined pan and smooth the top. Let it cool completely on the counter, then refrigerate it until it’s firm, at least 4 hours.

It keeps firming up as it chills, and it slices cleanly once it’s cold all the way through.

Cut and Wrap

Turn the pan over onto a cutting board and peel off the parchment. If the paste sticks, slide a butter knife under the parchment to loosen it.

Cut the paste into bars or small squares with a heavy knife. It’s sticky, so rinse the blade in cold water between cuts.

Wrap each piece in parchment paper.

For anything you’ll keep longer than a month, add a snug layer of plastic wrap over the parchment.

For gifts, wrap a bar in parchment and tie it with twine. Add a note with a few ideas for serving it.

Serving Quince Paste

In Spain, people eat membrillo with Manchego cheese. It’s good with any firm, salty cheese, too. Try it with an aged cheddar, or with a block of homemade cheddar if you make your own.

Put it on a cheese board with olives, homemade charcuterie, and crusty bread. Sourdough discard crackers are good with it too.

Beyond the cheese board, spread it on toast, tuck it into a sandwich, or bake it into pastries. A small block of it makes a good gift alongside a bottle of quince liqueur.

Storage and Shelf Life

Wrap quince paste in parchment and then plastic wrap, and it keeps for up to 6 months in the fridge. The plastic wrap keeps the edges from drying out.

It freezes well, too, and keeps for up to a year in the freezer if you wrap it tightly.

Quince Paste FAQs

Here are answers to a few common questions about quince paste.

More Quince Recipes

A few more ways to use a bag of quinces.

50+ Quince Recipes (How to Cook Quince)

Poached Quince

Quince Cake

More Ways to Preserve Fruit

Fruit butters, candied fruit, and liqueurs to make while fruit is in season.

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Quince Liqueur