Cooking projects...

Two major cooking endeavors we tried in 2013 were making quince paste and sausages.

Quince Paste

INGREDIENTS

• 4 pounds quince, washed, peeled, cored, roughly chopped

• 1 vanilla pod, split

• 2 strips (1/2 inch by 2 inches each) of lemon peel (only the yellow peel, no white pith)

• 3 Tbsp lemon juice

• About 4 cups of granulated sugar, exact amount will be determined during cooking

METHOD

1 Place quince pieces in a large saucepan (6-8 quarts) and cover with water. Add the vanilla pod and lemon peel and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the quince pieces are fork tender (30-40 minutes).

2 Strain the water from the quince pieces. Discard the vanilla pod but keep the lemon peel with the quince. Purée the quince pieces in a food processor, blender, or by using a food mill. Measure the quince purée. Whatever amount of quince purée you have, that's how much sugar you will need. So if you have 4 cups of purée, you'll need 4 cups of sugar. Return the quince purée to the large pan. Heat to medium-low. Add the sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the lemon juice.

3 Continue to cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the quince paste is very thick and has a deep orange pink color.

4 Preheat oven to a low 125°F (52°C). Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper (do not use wax paper, it will melt!). Grease the parchment paper with a thin coating of butter. Pour the cooked quince paste into the parchment paper-lined baking pan. Smooth out the top of the paste so it is even. Place in the oven for about an hour to help it dry. Remove from oven and let cool.

This came out so well! It wasn't as dark as I thought it would be, but after a few days in the refrigerator it darkened up considerably. We're still eating on it several months later. I will definitely have a quince tree in the orchard one day!

Sausage

We didn't follow a recipe for the sausage. Basically we took 2 lbs of pork shoulder, cubed it, then passed it through the meat grinder twice. Once that was done we split the amount in half and made part of it 'Italian' and part 'Breakfast'. I'll tell you right now neither tasted correct. The proportions of herbs were way to little. If it calls for Tsp. add 2xTbs. amounts. We should have gotten a prepackaged seasoning packet the first time and then tried different types the second go around. The other thing was the casings. We used salted natural casings (i.e. pig guts) which we washed several times in cold water. However, we didn't have a proper sausage stuffing tube, so every two-three inches I had to manually squeeze the casing to get the air out and scrunching it up like pantyhose was the only way we could keep the filling from oozing out. Let's just say we were happy to only make a few links.