Quince season here again
Oct. 19th, 2022 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anna_wingThis year I have ordered a lot of quince wine instead of fresh fruit, since the freezer still has rather a lot of last year's quinces. The wine is very light, no stronger than a light beer, and is absolutely delicious with soda water and ice, rather like a less sweet and sticky umeshu. Only for local sale, unfortunately.
I have established to my own satisfaction that the local quince actually isn't Cydonia oblonga. It is probably Pseudocydonia sinensis, the Chinese quince, previously Chaenomeles sinensis, but which now sits in a genus of its own in between Cydonia and the genus of Asian flowering quinces, Chaenomeles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocydonia
After a couple of years of trial and error, Housekeeper and I have decided that the European medieval way of making quince pie is the best. Instead of treating it like an apple pie, with discrete slices or wedges of fruit, we started making quince paste, added raisins, and used the mixture to fill a blind-baked pate brisee shell, which was then baked again for about 20 minutes at 180C. Since Pseudocydonia is viciously sour, the fruit:sugar ratio is 1:1.5, and anyone who doesn't like very tart tarts would do better to make it 1:2. Not something for diabetics, probably.
Very nice with very slightly sweetened cream, or with plain cream and a dusting of icing-sugar.
I have established to my own satisfaction that the local quince actually isn't Cydonia oblonga. It is probably Pseudocydonia sinensis, the Chinese quince, previously Chaenomeles sinensis, but which now sits in a genus of its own in between Cydonia and the genus of Asian flowering quinces, Chaenomeles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocydonia
After a couple of years of trial and error, Housekeeper and I have decided that the European medieval way of making quince pie is the best. Instead of treating it like an apple pie, with discrete slices or wedges of fruit, we started making quince paste, added raisins, and used the mixture to fill a blind-baked pate brisee shell, which was then baked again for about 20 minutes at 180C. Since Pseudocydonia is viciously sour, the fruit:sugar ratio is 1:1.5, and anyone who doesn't like very tart tarts would do better to make it 1:2. Not something for diabetics, probably.
Very nice with very slightly sweetened cream, or with plain cream and a dusting of icing-sugar.
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Date: 2022-10-20 04:29 am (UTC)If you have a Spanish or Hispanic food shop near you, queso de membrillo is the traditional European quince paste. Usually eaten with cheese. The French version, which is what I would call quince candy, is cotignac. I like a little bit as a snack before going to bed. The flavour is so strong that I don't need a lot. THe commercial kind tends to be very, very sweet to my palate.
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