[Sca-cooks] Quinces

[Melanie Unruh-Bays]

Greetings!

Having been charged with creating sweets to follow the feast at Crown
Tournament, I began to look for likely recipes. The theme is Norman-French,
and since some of the earliest recipes we have in the French corpus seem to
be from Le Ménagier de Paris, Du fait de cuisine, and Taillevent, I decided
to choose from these three sources. (I have no idea what recipes or sources
that the head cook is planning to use.) One of the recipes, Cotignac, or
Quince Jelly Candies seemed like a likely candidate, and met the criteria
"just some little things that people can pick up for dessert".

The problem of course, is the quinces which are not yet in season. I have a
couple of choices - I might be able to substitute pears, or there is the
very similar Apple Jelly Candies, from Libro di cucina, (Italian).

Imagine my surprise then when I find quinces at the supermarket last night!
Yes, they are still somewhat hard, but if I purchase them this weekend
(they're $1.99 each, so I need to wait until payday) will they ripen in the
space of two weeks? What if I put them in a paper bag with some bananas? Any
other suggestions? Having actually found them, I really hate to not be able
to use them.

Eirene