Quince substitute

Substitutes for Quince with ratios

1. 2Firm underripe pears (Bosc or Anjou)

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight, reduce the sugar by about a quarter

   The best aromatic match, since pear shares quince's floral, honeyed perfume more closely than apple does.

   What changes

   Best for

   poached fruit desserts, spiced syrups with clove and cinnamon, roasting alongside meat, cheese boards, chutneys

   Choose pears that are still rock hard, because a ripe pear disintegrates. Even so they will be tender in twenty to thirty minutes against quince's ninety, and they are considerably sweeter, so cut the sugar and add extra lemon to bring back quince's tartness. The syrup will stay pale gold instead of turning ruby, and the texture will be soft and yielding rather than dense and slightly grainy.

2. 3Half apple, half firm pear, with lemon

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by total weight, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice and a strip of zest per 2 fruit

   The most convincing stand-in, because apple supplies the tartness and structure while pear supplies the perfume.

   What changes

   Best for

   ayva tatlisi style poached desserts, stews and tagines, compotes, anything where quince is named specifically

   Cook them in stages: apple first, pear in the last ten minutes. Add a couple of apple cores and their seeds tied in muslin to the pan, which contributes both pectin and a little of quince's grippy astringency, then fish them out. This gets you genuinely close on flavour, and still will not reproduce quince's dense flesh or the pink colour that develops over long cooking.

3. 4Quince paste (membrillo) as a flavour source

   Different texture

   Use 2 to 3 tbsp paste for every 1 fresh quince, thinned with a little water

   When you want the actual taste of quince rather than pieces of fruit, cooked quince and sugar in block form gives you exactly that.

   What changes

   Best for

   sauces and glazes, sweetening and perfuming a stew, cheese plates, filling for pastries, flavouring a poaching syrup

   This is the one substitute that tastes unmistakably of quince, because it is quince. What it cannot do is be a chunk of fruit on the plate, and it is heavily sweetened, so cut the recipe's sugar accordingly and add lemon juice to compensate. Melt it into a spoonful of hot water or stock before stirring it in, or it sits in stubborn lumps.

4. 5Asian pear or firm crisp apple, for raw and salad uses

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount

   Crunchy, juicy, mild fruits for the rare recipes that call for raw quince shaved thin.

   What changes

   Best for

   salads, slaws, raw garnish, pickling

   Raw quince is rarely called for precisely because most varieties are hard, dry and mouth-puckeringly astringent, so if you have a raw recipe it is looking for crisp texture and gentle floral flavour rather than intensity. Asian pear delivers the crunch and juice but tastes bland-sweet, so dress it with lemon and a little salt. Do not attempt to eat a substituted-for quince raw expecting the same thing.

5. 6The honest answer for ayva tatlisi and quince jelly: there is no real substitute

   Taste and texture differ

   Least-bad option: firm pears poached with lemon, plus 2 apple cores in the syrup

   Some quince dishes are entirely about the fruit's specific pectin, density and colour change, and a swap will not get you there.

   What changes

   Best for

   understanding what you are giving up, deciding whether to cook something else instead

   Poached quince dessert works because the fruit stays intact for over an hour while its tannins oxidise to deep rose and its pectin turns the syrup thick and jelly-like. No apple or pear does that. If you attempt it, expect a pale, softer, thinner dessert in about a third of the cooking time, and add a strip of lemon peel, extra sugar and the apple cores for pectin. If the whole point is the pink quince, it is better to cook a pear dessert on purpose than a disappointing imitation.