SC - Notes re Quinces in Paste

[david friedman]

At 7:40 PM -0400 10/25/00, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
>david friedman wrote:


>  > Why did you modify the recipe? The original is pretty specific--two
>>  or three whole quinces. It sounds as though you are aiming at
>>  something that will look more like people expect, and less like what
>>  comes out from the original--which is, in my experience, pretty lumpy
>>  but good.
>
>I changed the recipe because I figured that if it calls for round
>coffins to be made, it would be nice to have a full coffin without a lot
>of empty space, and four quinces worked pretty well.

But that would be just as true for them as for us, so if they had 
agreed with you the recipe would presumably have specified cutting up 
one or two of the quinces to fill in.

>  I probably should
>have explained that, but I felt that since this was a structural change,
>and not a chemical one, it was at least a reasonable attempt. If it
>makes you feel any better, it was pretty lumpy anyway. Can you think of
>a workable explanation, other than that they were those wacky medieval
>folks, for why two whole quinces might be inserted into a round coffin?

Do we know that it was round?

>Think in terms of a round coffin whose diameter is twice that of a
>quince: what you end up with is a pie whose bottom/inside surface area
>is somewhat under halfway full. Unless it contains a _lot_ of honey or
>sugar, that's a lot of empty space, unless perhaps it is baked very
>slowly, essentially stewed in the pastry, until they collapse and cover
>the bottom. Then, of course, you have a big empty space on top.

Maybe the bottom crust is shaped to the quinces, not to the coffin? 
So you essentially have two cooked quinces wrapped in pastry sitting 
in the coffin?

I'm not sure if it is relevant, but what we now call a coffin isn't round.

>I wonder if it is made with a flour-and-water paste, then stewed inside
>the paste until soft, then spooned out like spiced wardens in syrup.
>(Could a consideration be that quinces are a"heavy" fruit, requiring
>much sweetening and long cooking, and would have a tendency to burn in
>an ordinary cook-it-in-a-pot setting?) But what do you say to the
>concept of gratuitous wasted flour? It's one thing to be liberal with
>ingredients, but there's usually at least some reason for it.

Maybe the paste was one of the things that went out to the poor?

I use a flour and water paste for Icelandic Chicken, and enjoy the 
resulting dough--sort of like pizza crust in texture. So maybe the 
paste was the container, but after it had been soaked with quince 
juice it was tasty?

Clearly more experimentation is called from; I wonder if our quinces 
are ripe yet.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/