Dulce de membrillo

Dulce de membrillo or Carne de membrillo in Spanish, marmelada in Portuguese, codonyat in Catalan, cotognata in Italian, is a sweet spread or a dessert (quince paste, quince jelly, quince candy or quince meat).

Traditionally and predominantly from Portugal, Italy (exported when the South of Italy was part of the Kingdom of Aragón) and Spain, dulce de membrillo is a firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard paste made of the quince (Cydonia oblonga) fruit.^[1] Dulce de membrillo is also eaten in some other countries of America, such as Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, and in Israel, as a typical Sephardi dish.

Dulce de membrillo is made of quince fruit, sugar and water, cooked over a slow fire. It is sweet and mildly tart, and similar in consistency, flavor and use to guava cheese or guava paste.^[2] It is sold in squares or blocks, then cut into thin slices and spread over toasted bread or sandwiches, plain or with cheese, often served for breakfast or as a snack, with manchego cheese or mató cheese. It is very often used to stuff pastries.

Guava cheese is also called membrillo in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, where it forms a part of the traditional nochebuena array on Christmas Eve. Although it contains no quince fruit, it is nevertheless called "membrillo" by the locals, despite that membrillo means "quince" in Spanish.