Results of the super-simple recipe for candied Japanese quince: mildly disappointing. That shortcut was too good to be true.

The sugar drew a lot of water out of the fruit, but not much of the sugar made its way into the fruit. The fruit now weighs a third less – the 1250 grams have turned into 820 grams. And while it’s somewhat softer and sweeter than it started out, it’s nowhere near proper candied fruit.

I can still pivot to a version of the slow recipe, which pushes sugar into the fruit a little bit at a time. Drain the syrup, add more sugar, bring it to a boil, pour it over the fruit. (I’m definitely not risking any boiling of the fruit, though.) Repeat daily. I’m starting from an unknown sugar concentration so I guess I’ll just make up some random numbers for the sugar amounts, and stop when I think the result looks and tastes good.