[Sca-cooks] Quinces in 14th century France

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Colleen McDonald:
>Hi everyone,
>
>I'm currently researching the use of quinces and quince paste in 
>14th century France. 
>
>I've found the recipe for Cotignac/Coindignac in Le Menagier, but I 
>did not find any for quinces in the Viandier of Taillevent (Scully). 
>I haven't come across anything else that mentions/describes quince 
>paste during this period, but I want to make sure that I haven't 
>missed some *obvious* source that I'm not aware of yet.
>
>Any other 14th century quince pastes (or quince recipes) out that 
>that I should be looking for?

Well, looking at the notes in the index/glossary of Curye On 
Inglysch, it refers to a roughly contemporary recipe in another 
source, for chared conys (presumably once char de conys), which seems 
to be similar to char de warden, except it is more a preservable 
version made with honey and reduced to thicken, rather than thickened 
with eggs as in some versions of applemoy. Phew.

I think there's also a reference in The Florilegium.

I haven't checked, but I vaguely remember there being a cotignac 
recipe in Chiquart's Du Fait de Cuisine.

As for one possible reason why there  might be a recipe for it in Le 
Menagier, but not in Taillevent, Taillevent does seem to dismiss the 
processes that are [according to him] obviously the job of the 
housewife. He also has no joutes recipe, for example, because "every 
housewife knows how to make them." I suspect Taillevent would have 
bought his ready-made.

Adamantius