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

[David Friedman]

Al Warraq has a recipe for conserving quince that's just quince and 
honey and is very good. It's what I mostly do with the quinces from our 
tree.


On 3/6/17 5:58 AM, Brooke White wrote:
> 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
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>

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/