I found Tejocotes at a local grocery store for the first time

[Xipe Totec]

The fruit is eaten in Mexico cooked, raw, or canned. It resembles a crabapple, but it has three or sometimes more brown hard stones in the center. It is a main ingredient used in ponche, the traditional Mexican hot fruit punch that is served at Christmas time and on New Year's Eve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus_mexicana

The traditional Mexican Christmas punch is made with these fruit plus guavas, tamarinds and sugar cane among others. It is prepared on a copper cauldron over an open wood fire.




https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2016/11/christmas-punch-recipe.html

Spiked with rum, brandy, or other hard liquor according to individual tastes.

It is very unusual to find these fruit in the US, even in deep, deep South Texas where 80% of the population is Hispanic.

[MLAA]

1. I will look for them in Tucson 🙂

[Kali]

2. cool, I have never heard of them

[blaze]

3. High in pectin, eh?

I did a trial run on a cranberry sauce that uses apples (with their pectin) to set up the sauce. Didn't work for me...

The drink sounds wonderful.

[Xipe Totec]

4. If you want high pectin, use quince

Definitely will set.

High in pectin, they are used to make jam, jelly and quince pudding, or they may be peeled, then roasted, baked or stewed; pectin levels diminish as the fruit ripens. The flesh of the fruit turns red after a long cooking with sugar by formation of anthocyanins. The very strong perfume means they can be added in small quantities to apple pies and jam to enhance the flavor. Adding a diced quince to apple sauce will enhance the taste of the apple sauce with the chunks of relatively firm, tart quince. The term "marmalade", originally meaning a quince jam, derives from marmelo, the Portuguese word for this fruit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince

[blaze]

5. Not sure I can get quince in Colorado

But will add it to my "keep-an-eye-out-for" list.

[Xipe Totec]

6. My in-laws have quinces in their yard

Two bushes are enough to keep the entire family stocked with quince jelly year round.

They live in Saltillo, Mexico, which is at 5,200 feet base elevation above sea level. My guess is that quince would grow well in Colorado.