[Sca-cooks] quince question - retting?

[Terry Decker]

"Bletting," retting is what you do to flax to produce linen fibers.

To quote Bush, F.A., Trees and Shrubs, Taplinger, 1965;  "if the fruit is 
wanted it should be left on the tree until late October and stored until it 
appears in the first stages of decay; then it is ready for eating. More 
often the fruit is used for making jelly."  The first hard frost breaks the 
cell walls and starts the process.  The edible result looks like an an apple 
that has gone bad, soft and brown, and tastes sweet and mushy.

>From the sound of it, your quince was picked before the frost, so if it does 
blet, it may take a while.

Bear




We were amazed to find an actual quince fruit on our decorative flowering 
quince in the middle of the summer!

I know (theoretically) that quinces are among those fruit that ripen by the 
rather weird process called "retting", which involves ALMOST letting the 
fruit rot!

Can anyone advise about how to identify the magical moment between ret and 
rot, and what one might usefully be able to do with ONE small quince (let's 
see, it's now at 74g or 2 & 5/8 oz; about an inch-and-a-half to 2 inches 
diameter). The surface is slowly wrinkling up, feels sort of waxy to the 
touch, smells wonderful, of course, is completely dry at this point. It's 
been in the house at least a month, I have it in a small glass dessert cup, 
in a wire hanging basket, so it's getting good air circulation, but won't 
drip liquid on anything, if it goes squishy without my noticing.

Any info gladly received, THANKS!

Chimene in Adiantum