[Sca-cooks] Quinces

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Eirene, the quinces should be hard. They are a fruit that is only 
eaten after having been cooked.

If they are ripe, they should have yellow skin and have an wonderful fragrance.

I have made period quince-lemon syrup from scratch for a feast - 
Limon-safarjali - and i have used quinces in a dish from the 
Anonymous Andalusian cookbook - Recipe for a Dish of Chicken or 
Partridge with Quince or Apple - i used chicken and quinces. I made 
it with apples once, but they lack the necessary "character"- the 
dish was good, but with quinces it's much better. I have also made a 
very different chicken and quince dish from Guter Spiese.

I bought a case of them to make the syrup for a feast in late 
November, then used the remaining quinces for a feast in early 
December. I kept them in their box in a cool place - an enclosed 
sleeping porch - a turn of the century (19 to 20) California 
phenomenon - for the intervening 2 or 3 weeks and only one or two 
were less than perfect.

Anahita