When you live in a Nordic climate you’re not used to harvest giant fruits… like persimmons growing in Spain (Rojo brillante and Vanilla) for an example.
I just harvested my first Mohler persimmons and they are quite small like a chestnut I would say but I have to add that the taste was W.O.W.!. A lot of vanilla smell and taste.
Going back to quince: long story short. Bought Giant Of Zagreb whip trees 5 years ago, put them in a greenhouse to accelerate growing, put them in ground on may 2020, all survived winter, got flowers Spring 2021 and finally harvested 19 fruits last week.
In my region 200% of the population have no clue about the word quince, its meaning: a malady?A relative of Quincy MD? So I had to look the Net for recipes. With 19 (HUGE) quinces I was able to do this:
In the pot with foam (it vanished by itself later during cooking): maple syrup and vanilla beans. In the other pot: honey and a lot a different spices.
In total I took 9 quinces to do the maple + vanilla and 10 to do the honey/spices. All of those are 250 ml (no idea in imperial measure, sorry) and 4 of 500 ml.
Sometimes I deeply reflect about the enormous amount of time I put to produce all of my fruits but harvesting, tasting, cooking them is sure a lot of pride and joy!
Sorry for not taking your words with more brain finesse. Sometimes I’m just too ‘first level’ when reading what other people write or say.
A confession here: that the US still resist adopting fully the metric system is just too sad. Things would be so easy between the three trade partners in North America if this was a reality. Maybe it has to do with the French who invented it??? Oups…!
I was so inspired by your comments of quince I started researching quince jams and found a recipe for ‘Velvet Quince’ jam. Looks sinful. Cannot wait to make it next fall. I am surprised that quinces turn a dark red when cooked into jam. Its really beautiful and I bet it tastes fabulous. My friends will love it.
If I inspired you a bit it’s because I was inspired a lot by this site: www.notquitenigella.com
Just by looking at the photos of foods on Lorraine Elliott’ site: one gains pounds!!!
Put the word: quince in the site search engine and you will get a lot of quince recipes. I was very excited about her recipe too… I don’t know the English translation but there is a good chance you have read that term before so it’s: pocher. Maybe: slow cooking in liquid is a bit of an explanation? Pocher quinces in Port wine… Can anything tops that???
As for my experience with my Giant of Zagreb quinces, I was a bit disappointed not seeing that the mix would not turn a bit red as I read in many recipes that quinces often do that. I could have put a bit of food coloring but decided not to. I did some of my quince with sugar cane only and unfortunately no red color results either. I was fortunate enough to find quinces, variety pineapple from CA and cooked them and same result: no color red and no taste of… pineapple too.
But I really enjoyed Giant of Zagreb taste: about 50% apple and 50% pear and the texture of the jam was quite pleasing. Not grainy at all.
Next October I will visit Κωνσταντινούπολις , fullfiling a more than 45 year old dream to visit this «city» because I’m a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge fan of Byzantine History. Discovering Constantinople will take a lot of my time visiting the «city» but I will take some time too to visit Istanbul and Turks seems to grow a lot of quince and must have developed a ton a fabulous recipes for them. I like to buy booklets of local cuisine when I travel and will look for quince recipe for sure. I hope the first 3 weeks of October won’t be too late to taste fresh figs since I’m a huge «fig pig» too!
I have this recipe found on a French site. Will try it for sure with my next quince harvest.
Compote fine aux Coings : (pour 4+¾ pots de 324ml)
8 coings (1,2kg de chair) - 400gr d’eau - 300gr de sucre de canne blond non raffiné - 30gr de jus de citron fraichement pressé
Laver les coings, sécher et frotter pour enlever le duvet (ne pas éplucher), couper en 4, enlever la queue, mouche et coeur, couper en gros cubes (il faut 1,2kg de chair). Mettre l’eau, le sucre, le jus de citron et les cubes de coings dans une grande casserole, cuire 30 minutes, à couvert, feu moyen, les coings doivent être fondants.
Funny, I was A classics minor in college, so I could read your Greek! I know our quinces turn red here as they sell the jam in the marché and it has no food coloring. Cannot wait to give it a try. I should have a lot os mirabelles this year, another good taste. I also took a year of Byzantium. It was great!
