Dulce de membrillo is the star of this cheese board

Daily Maverick

31-07-2025

Dulce de membrillo is a jelly-like quince paste from Spain that is often used as a component of a cheese board. We used it as the focal point of exactly that.
A creative soul from Barrydale in the Klein Karoo, Jonathon Rees, turned a crop of quinces from his garden into a healthy batch of dulce de membrillo, a quince 'paste'.
Membrillo, to shorten its name, is not well known in South Africa. Yet. It really ought to be, though, given how many quinces grow here. It is generally regarded as Spanish (though is found elsewhere) and is sometimes called quince cheese, and now that I have used it on a cheese board I really don't like it being called that at all, and Jonathon agrees.
Jonathon, who on another note has just held an exhibition of his jazz performance images in the Settlers Monument in Makhanda during the National Arts Festival, acknowledged that 'some people call it quince cheese, but that is misleading'.
'My understanding is that membrillo will last for up to six months in the fridge,' he says. 'Mine is wrapped in baking paper, cling film and tin foil and is good as new. I made some more chocolates at the weekend.'
This followed email conversations earlier in the year, which led to a rectangular old chocolate box arriving by courier at my Cradock home. Inside it were the aforementioned layers and, finally, a gleaming block of the moist, reddish-brown dulce de membrillo.
I peeked, covered it in its layers again, and it was in the fridge for about two months before I tentatively opened it, wondering what effect, if any, time may have had on it. It was visibly unchanged from its original state. In mint-jelly condition, you might say.
Since then, he and I have exchanged new emails.
'The quince has a rich history and I've read that the apple that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden may have been a quince,' he says.
'A lot of old gardens in SA seem to feature quince trees, often gnarly and old, particularly in the Karoo, though we had one growing up in Edenvale. I doubt people used all the fruit so it probably added to the diet of pigs.
'The two acres we are restoring in Barrydale certainly have an abundance of them, and with a few years of feeding and pruning they now produce abundantly. Harvest is from late March through May.'
I have made quince jelly in the past, which is a beloved preserve in the small towns of the Karoo – a clear pink jelly, quite unlike the much denser membrillo. When we make our venison fynvleis pies, some quince jelly goes in to finish it off. And you'll find it served alongside venison in our small town restaurants and hotel dining rooms.
Jonathon says: 'In SA the only widely known use of quince I have found is the making of jelly; and while you see ingelegte kwepers sold at farm stalls I've never been served them.'
Chunks of quince are bottled in a very sweet syrup and sold throughout, while my friend Heyla Meyer preserves whole slices of quince, an unusual alternative.
The fruit is inedible when raw, as Jonathon points out. He also finds it time consuming dealing with them, 'as the shape is irregular and so hard to peel, and the core spreads through the fruit. But what a rewarding flavour if you get it right.
'Reducing it to a paste seems to be the only way to really get the unique sweet/tart flavour. I decided obsessively to try and make use of and add value to my entire crop. We didn't quite get there but I did process hundreds of kilograms in March/April with my assistant Stanley.'
Here's how Jonathon prepared his dulce de membrillo, which he gladly shared with us. (No, he doesn't have much of a stock of it, he says.) And of course you'll have to wait for the next quince season if you want to have a go yourself.)
'My method is as follows. I don't recall where I sourced it but it appears to be the common/standard.
1 kg quince fruit, peeled, cored, cubed and rinsed
3 ½ cups white sugar (I tried reducing the sugar but the membrillo didn't set)
1 litre of water
2 Tbsp lemon juice (I squeeze it fresh)
Put everything into a heavy-bottomed pot on a stove at medium heat (I use a stock pot and make up to 5x the recipe in a batch).
Once the sugar melts, reduce to simmer and leave for hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. You have to stir more and more often, and almost constantly at the end.
Enjoy watching the pale-yellow quince transform through a pink blush to a rich ruby red.
'It takes longer than you think… but at some point the mixture transforms into a paste that will stick without near-constant attention. A good test is to scrape some off the bottom of the pot with a spatula. If the pot remains visible for a second or two then it is probably ready.
'But it is highly idiosyncratic and each batch has its own behaviour. Even the colour seems to change across batches and I haven't worked out why. Sometimes it comes out a rusty orange, sometimes a deep dark red.
'Blend the paste with a stick or jug blender and pour into shallow trays lined with baking paper – and put into the fridge to set. In cool weather it would likely set at room temperature.
'If it hasn't firmed up after five hours then you took it off too early. So cook it some more.
'Serve with Manchego cheese, smoked meats or on any platter.'
Jonathon also sent me a few chocolate membrillo sweets when he first sent the block of dulce de membrillo. They were homemade and rustic, delicious, and reminded us a little of Turkish Delight.
Jonathon has been inventive with quinces in other ways too.
'I have tried quince as a fruit in stews – I fried some slices up in bacon and layered them on top of a beef short rib potjie made with honeybush tea instead of stock. It was incredible.'
Tony's cheese and dulce de membrillo cheese board
(Serves 6-10)
Ingredients
A round or rectangle of dulce de membrillo
4 or 5 wedges of cheeses that you like
Small bunches of grapes
Mixed nuts
Friends
Method
Lay the membrillo on a board and use a wide, round cutter to carve out an attractive round of membrillo. Or cut it square, or into cubes or wedges, as you like.
How we did it: using a smallish sharp knife, mark out wedges of it for people to cut out when helping themselves. Cut out one wedge yourself and pull it out a little, for decoration and as a guide.
Take a cracker, put some cheese on it, and top with membrillo. It's a most desirable combination.
If membrillo is new to you or your friends, tell them all about it. And if you want to buy some in future, send me an email next winter and I'll find out if Jonathon has made a much bigger batch (which he has in mind) in which case you may well be able to have some delivered to your front door.
Otherwise, check speciality food stores. DM