[Sca-cooks] Amazing romand dish (Patina de cydoniis)

[Brooke White]

I am writing this to let ya'll know of the WORTHTRYingness and quality of
this dish we cooked two days ago at an event here in Drachenwald: it is
from
Apicius "de re coquinaria " Book IV chapter II. 163 Patina de cydoniis.

A dish of quinces is made as follows:2
<http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/4*.html#163note2>
quinces
are cooked with leeks, honey and broth, using hot oil, or they are stewed
in honey.3
<http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/4*.html#163note3>

We didn't have any quinces (though we will definitely try it again, when
they are in season) so we followed the suggestion of the author of this
blog: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/4*.html and
used an unsugared Quince "jam" (from el quijote which was 80% fruit) and
used apples (unpeeled but cut into cubes) for texture.

We used about 20 leeks and a similar volume of apples (maybe a bit more)
with one of those 400g packages, cooked them in vegetable broth (it was the
vegetarian part of the course) and added about 1,5 times the volume of the
marmelade in honey. We used ample broth (and correctly so since, -of course
- court was not finished in time ;) ) but even so some of it started to
reduce in to the point of it no longer being a liquidy dish, so we added
some more water. This didn't diminish the flavor, which was rich and
somewhat sweet but not "just" sweet or even just very sweet.

It's the kind of dish that is suitable as a vegetarian and GF dish and pair
well with meat but also is tasty on its own.

ImE some people have no "concept" of the flavor of quinces unless exposed
to the spanish cuisine so I felt compelled to let ya'all know how great
this dish was.

We served meatballs from book 11, Minces of the same "cookbook" by Apicius
with this dish. We also had a wine sauce (though I am not completely sure
we did it justice) but the juices of the "quince" dish were a perfect
combination, better than the wine sauce, at least to our modern palates. It
was a group of around 60+ people so the sample should be big enough and got
back 1 small bowl after that course (it was the first course meal so people
knew they had to pace themselves but that bowl did not survive the night
either)

When I will cook this dish again during quince season, I would take MANY
more quinces than leeks to try to reproduce this flavor as the jam was
basically a reduction of quince, probably much more focussed in flavor than
just the original quinces (but then our modern palates are also used to
higher sweetness).

It was divine, if I may say so myself. I highly recommend to everybody to
try it. It would pair well with any kind of fowl/chicken, the meatballs
mentioned, and I couls also see it work with Venison. I am not much of a
fish cook, so I cannot truly assess its value there.

YIS
Elisande