Quince Ratafia
Quince ratafia is still one of the most popular drinks, and you’ll find plenty of recipes both in books and on the internet.
It’s a well-known drink in Provence, known as Coudounat. The Provençal word for quince is coudoun. It has been made for centuries, and each family has its own recipe. There is even a recipe in the Provençal recipe book, the Reboul, which every Provençal must have at home. Le Reboul gave it the misleading name of Eau de coings, Aígo de coudoun. There is water in the recipe but it is far from being the determining element.
We’re not going to give you our grandmother’s recipe, but the one taken from the Manuel du distillateur liquoriste of 1827.
In the old manual which inspired us, quince ratafia is considered to be economical and has “digestive virtues”.
Do you know quince?
Quince is the fruit of the quince tree, a fruit-bearing shrub that thrives in the Mediterranean climate. The fruit is yellow, very hard and covered with a downy layer. Its powerful apple/pear/honey aroma is great and embalms your kitchen. To make ratafia we need fruits picked when ripe so from mid-September-end of October.
The good news is that we do not need to peel the quince, which is a huge advantage as it is a very firm and uncooperative fruit.
Simply rub them well with a clean cloth to remove the fuzzy part. Grate the whole fruit using a 4-sided vertical grater. Much easier and more pleasant than peeling, cutting and deseeding quince.
According to the manual, you leave the pulp to rest for 24 hours to obtain more juice, which is what we did, but the result was not up to our expectations. We recommend pressing the pulp immediately. You can simply squeeze the pulp with your hands or with a small press, such as a food mill, if you have one in your kitchen.
Pour the juice into a glass jar and add the alcohol, quince pulp, maci, cloves and nutmeg. According to the manual, the sugar should be added now, but we decided to add it later. We wanted to avoid ‘losing sugar’ in the solid ingredients.
The mixture had to rest for about 1 month in a jug in the sun: that’s a rather romantic view of the process. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, autumn may not be the sunniest season. It’s not essential, you can leave it to macerate at room temperature
After macerating for 1 month, you can filter the liquid through a chinois-type sieve. Then add the sugar syrup and water and mix well. Bottle your Quince Ratafia in pretty bottles.
The quantities of water and sugar are given as a guide only; you can modify them to suit your taste.
Ingredients
1l vodka at 37.5%
1,2 kg ripe quinces
82ml sugar syrup
1/2l water
3 cloves
2g maci
A little bit of nutmeg (to taste)
To prepare a sugar syrup, you use as much water as sugar; dissolve the sugar in hot water and leave to cool; for example: 100ml of water for 100g of sugar.
