[Sca-cooks] Shopping as Economic Warfare

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan sez:

>Another good one that I like is how Baron Akim got his quinces to make
>quince paste two years ago. Quinces are usually rather expensive in
>the grocery. They also happen to need to be overly ripe before you
>can use them. (See the quinces-msg file in the Florilegium). Anyway,
>Akim managed to time it to show up at his grocery when the quinces
>were beginning to look old and "gooey". And offered the grocery a
>fraction of their original asking price for these ugly, doubtlessly
>about to go to waste, fruits. And thus he came to Pennsic with a
>large container of quince paste which some of us there got to taste.
>
>Unfortunately, I think only Central Market has quinces in Austin
>and even then only about a quart of so. And I've not managed to
>time it right to take advantage of this technique of Akim's.

I had a problem finding quinces before EK 12th Night, and by the time
I did find them, between price and quality, it turned out to be
cheaper (as well as faster) to buy a commercial quince paste. Which,
luckily, I was able to find in quantity (8-lb blocks instead of
40,000 little 9-ounce packets).

Adamantius