Any Cheese maker worth his salt should be able to whip up a few accompaniments for their cheese, so I gave it a go. I made the most amazing Quince Paste!

I read somewhere that Quince paste was a really good complimentary flavour that goes with most cheeses.  Having never tried it before, it was a bit of a gamble, but one that paid off in the end.  The flavour is sensational, and I would recommend this fruit paste to anyone who is wondering what to do with a few spare quinces.

I found a recipe from Taste.com.au and followed it exactly.  It worked fine, except that I added a full cup of water at the start because it looked like it was going to boil dry!  Pretty easy process.  Peel, core, chop, then stew.  After the chopped up quinces turned to mush, I blended them in the food process whilst hot and then returned the fruit to the pot and added the sugar.

So that I could capture the long 3.5 hour process, I took photos at 15 minute intervals.

I just love the way it changes colour during the cooking process.

Then I lined 6 ramekins with plastic wrap and ladled in the paste, and when it cooled a little, we folded over the wrap to protect it as it set.

I left them on the kitchen counter overnight and we had some for lunch with a piece of ash coated Brie and Castello white cheese.  Unfortunately, these are not my creations, because of Sustainable House Day preparations, but will be getting stuck into cheesemaking again next week.

The taste was great and it really brought out the flavour of the cheese.  A great accompaniments indeed.  Not quite sure how to store it, but we have it in a sealed container in the fridge.  Hopefully it will store for a while, at least until I get a Caerphilly made and ripened!  I can just taste the sweet and salty together, yummy.

Can anyone help and let me know if I can freeze Quince Paste?  Comments welcome.