SC - Re: SC: Quince fruit

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

Evfemia at mail.com
Iron Mtn, Meridies asked:

>>>>I thought that a quince was poisonous.  Are they a member of the
nightshade family?<<<<<
  >>
Mordonna replied:
>>>>Tomatoes and egg plant ( I believe) are also members of this family.
And
they are not poisonsous (although lots of people would argue with that)<<<<

Whoa!  Yeah, tomatoes and eggplants are in the nightshade
family tree, but quinces certainly are NOT!  Entirely different
botanical branch.   They are trees, not herbaceous vegetables.
They are closely related to apples and pears and are of an origin
in Asia minor.   I can't imagine where you are getting fresh
quinces this time of year.  Pretty much they have finished out
in the markets by the end of January.  They are such expensive
and specialty fruits that I am surprised to see them now.  They
must be from the South American crop as it is now late fall doen
there.  We only get them here around the Christmas holidays.
There is nothing poisonous about quinces (well any more poisonous
than the small amounts of cyanidates in apple and pear seeds), so
don't worry about it.  You know, some folks call the fruits of the
Japanese ornamental Quince (also mistakenly called a hawthorn)
for real quinces.  They are quite edible and cook up like a quince,
but they are not quinces.  Those fruits look like a yellow green apple;
true quinces look like pears trying to be an apple.
I wrote a ton of stuff last year on quinces and marmalades which
Stefan supposedly added to the Floriegium.  Check there.

As to wine recommendations for period recipies, I suggest
a sweet and fruity red like Fransia Chillable Red which is fairly
cheap.  I suspect that a lot of the period red wines were very
fruity, moreso than todays burgundys and bourdouxs as they
did not age their wines as we do in vintage production.

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"