[Sca-cooks] Quince Query

[Volker Bach]

I don't know that much abnou Elizabethan cuisine, but in modern-day cotignac and Apfelkraut they use the strained juice. There is enough pectin in it to make it jel if you cook it down long enough - in my experience about 15-30 minutes, though I've had batches that took longer.

Sounds like a lovely idea

Giano

--- David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> schrieb am Fr, 9.10.2009:

> Von: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> Betreff: [Sca-cooks] Quince Query
> An: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Datum: Freitag, 9. Oktober 2009, 7:49
> I've been experimenting with the
> quinces from our tree, and decided this evening to try a
> quince paste recipe-"To make condomacke of quinces" from
> Dawson's _Good Husswife's Jewel_. The recipe tells you to
> peel, core and cut up your quinces, then boil them in a
> mixture of wine and water "until they bee tender." After
> which:
> 
> " then thake a peece of fine cavas & put your quinces
> and liquor in it, and when your sirrope is all runne
> through, put in so much fine suger as will make it sweete,
> and set it over a quicke fire againe, surring with a sticke
> til it be so thicke that a drop will stand upon a dish, then
> take it from the fire and put it in boxes."
> 
> My initial assumption was that you were straining out the
> liquid, then sweetening and cooking down the semi-solid
> quince mush that remained. But it's hard to fit that with
> "til it be so thicke that a drop will stand upon a dish,"
> since a drop of the mush will stand upon a dish even before
> you cook it down.
> 
> That suggests an alternative interpretation--that it is the
> liquid, not the solid, that you sweeten and cook down,
> relying on the pectin from the quince cooked in it to
> eventually jell it.
> 
> Not knowing which interpretation is correct, I'm trying
> both. I cooked the mush down for about half an hour than
> boxed it; the liquid is still simmering.
> 
> A third possible interpretation is that you aren't draining
> the liquid but passing the mush through a strainer--"fine
> canvas" that is sufficiently loosely woven so that the
> cooked quince, perhaps cooked longer than the hour I boiled
> it for, can be forced through. On that theory, you end up
> using both liquid and solid together.
> 
> Can someone more familiar than I am with nouvelle cuisine
> enlighten me as to which of my guesses, or what other
> interpretation that I haven't thought of, is most likely?
> -- David/Cariadoc
> www.daviddfriedman.com
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