SC - Quince

[Kornelis Sietsma]

On Sun, 03 May 1998 16:00:49 -0400, Bonne wrote:

>The local Wellspring Grocery had Quince Paste in the cheese department. Are
>quinces an old or new world fruit?  It was a slice of a somewhat jelly like,
>clear preserve. What would you do with quince paste?

Quinces are indeed an old world fruit.  Fresh quinces are similar to pears,
except much larger, and you cannot consume them raw (they are far too
tart).  Cooked, they are wonderful!

As for the paste - I'm not certain what it is used for these days, but
something very similar was used as a confection.  I have a period recipe
somewhere for a sweet that involves boiling down mushed quinces, wine,
honey, and spices until you have a thick paste.  Once it is thick enough,
you cut it into squares, roll them in sugar, and eat them.  The result is
*very* tasty - if rather a lot of work.

The fruit is only available in autumn here, and mainly at large markets.
And the reason I'm currently very familiar with the fruit is because we ran
an Autumn feast on Saturday - report to follow soon - which contained
(among many other things) 26 quinces :)

- -Korny (too tired to work, so catching up on e-mail :)
- -- 
William Bekwith MKA Kornelis Sietsma | http://zikzak.net/~korny
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