[Sca-cooks] A Quince Puzzle

[Elise Fleming]

His Grace Cariadoc sent:
 >My quince tree has been producing, and having made a fair amount of
 >al-Warraq's preserved quince I decided to try something else. Dawson 
 >has a recipe for condomacke of quinces which consists of peeling,
 >quartering, and coring the quinces, boiling them in one part wine to
 >four parts water until they are soft, 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.

 >I have put asterisks in to mark the puzzle. At that point I have two
 >things--about a pint of liquid containing wine, water, and quince 
 >juice, and about 3/4 c of quince mush from which I have squeezed out 
as >much juice as I can. Which of the two am I using for the rest of the 
 >recipe?

 >The "so thicke that a drop will stand" passage suggests it's the 
 >liquid, since the mush is about the texture of apple sauce, doesn't 
 >form drops, and stands just fine without any additional cooking. On 
the >other hand, the liquid doesn't really require stirring until it's 
 >thickened quite a bit--at the moment it's simmering and I will check 
 >that prediction in a little bit.

I'd agree about the liquid. The description of the syrup is probably the 
"pearl" stage. I compiled a number of references to sugar syrup stages 
and this is what is under "the pearl":

Sugar will form small pearl-like round bubbles.  A pinch of syrup can be 
drawn out between thumb and forefinger without breaking.  (Note the 
similarity of description above as is Hess's suggested temperature.)  At 
least one cooking authority says that this is "the proper degree for 
most kinds of candy making."  Hess suggests 220°F, [104.4ºC] "candy 
height," Recipe S5.  The Ladies Cabinet, 1655, Recipe 95 states, "...(to 
see when it is enough) it will stand on a stiffe purle when you drop 
some of it upon a Plate of silver..."

The sugar stage article is not on my web site, but if anyone wants me to 
send them a copy, please contact me at one of the addresses below my 
signature.

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418@N08/sets/