Quince — the deceptive fruit.
When you spot a quince on a tree or at a market, you would be forgiven for expecting it to be juicy and sweet like the pear it resembles in a bigger bumpy sort of way. But the quince is what author Kate Lebo calls “a difficult fruit.” In “The Book of Difficult Fruit,” Lebo writes, “The truth is that any quince worth its salt is so astringent that it will wick the water from your mouth. It’s sour. It is very difficult to taste the fruity flavors through the astringency and the sourness. I was just so shocked and betrayed, but in a fun way. This fruit challenged me.”
It's among the foods that makes one wonder: Who was the first human to tame it? Some scholars suggest quince was the biblical fruit of knowledge. It’s such a great metaphor — something that is seemingly delicious, that smells so sweet but is ruinously sour. When choosing quince, look for the aroma, which is a hint of ripeness. Another is that the fuzz on the skin goes away as the fruit ripens.
They can be rock hard and a challenge to prep, so why bother to put the effort in? But all that astringency and sourness is with raw quince. Once cooked, the fruit transforms. Its lovely aroma lingers in the flavor of the flesh when it is cooked with sugar. There is also a dramatic color change from pale white to a pink that deepens to burgundy the longer it cooks, and is enhanced when the fruit cooks with the peel and seeds. The flavor is described as a cross between an apple and a pear, but I think it’s more complex than that. There is a faint spiciness to the cooked fruit that enhances dishes it’s served alongside.
Dulce de Membrillo or quince paste made by cooking down the astringent fruit with sugar. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
My first experience of quince was as membrillo, the paste made by cooking the fruit down with sugar. It’s so high in pectin that it gels into a lovely fruit paté, which often accompanies a cheese board or gets baked into flaky pastries with goat cheese.
The first time I saw a quince on a tree was in Italy. I smelled the fruits before I actually saw them as I walked through a backyard orchard. Quince has a lot of pectin, the natural gel and thickener used to make jams. In fact, quince is useful as a pectin addition to other cooked fruits — instead of store-bought pectin — when making jam. For cooks who like a project, quince compote is a wonderful change from cranberry sauce for the Thanksgiving table.
Quince is cooked to make jam. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
We’re talking about quince now because it’s starting to appear on local farmers market tables. The season isn’t long and not much is grown in Southern California. If you want to cook with it, now is the time to buy it. You can keep the fruit in a bowl at home for a while and enjoy their aroma.
As we move into cold and flu season, it’s good to have a packet of dried quince seeds on hand. You can find them labeled as “semillas de membrillo” in the Mexican spice area of grocery stores. The seeds are boiled or infused and then sipped as a tea to calm coughs and to soothe intestinal upsets. It is both a Mexican and a Persian remedy.
Deeply colored, Turkish poached quince is filled with clotted cream for a striking dessert. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
Recipes to make with quince:
The Persian stew khoresh-e-Beh
Turkish poached quince stuffed with clotted cream
The Iranian stew of quince and lamb with saffron is known as khoresh-e-Beh. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.