h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This afternoon I bought two quinces. Two quince. Two quincii...This afternoon I bought a quince. Also - I bought another one.

I've peeled and quartered them and they are now simmering in some homemade syrup with a little lemon juice. Soon the house will be full of a heady scent akin to Turkish delight. If I cook them for a few hours they'll turn dark, dark red. (initially they resemble lumpy, hard apples.)

Then I shall cool them and serve them with mascarpone. I shall reduce the syrup and bottle it for future ice cream.

Are yours as big as braeburns, say?

I grew some of them once, but mine only got about the size of wee crab apples. Tasted dire, too, even when I tried to make jam and things with them.

Bramleys! And big bramleys at that. Bigger than usual, Not cheap (£1.99 ea) but well worth it. Usually when I've bought them they've been about Braeburn sized.

I believe the blossoms are lovely.

Enjoy your brace of quince. Going to eat them with a runcible spoon?

The Quince, great in pies, or shredded, in applesauce.

The tree is a popular robust rootstock for other fruits in the pear and apple family and home gardening enthusiasts sometimes graft multiple fruits on to them to provide more variety off a single tree.

You mean you can grow apples and pears on the same tree?

It's amazing (or maybe not) to think that most of the fruit we eat is cloned.

And that every navel orange is grown from a cutting--they can't reproduce, can they?

quince wine...

Hmm, dunno, Peanut. I gather that nowadays most supermarkets sell rather good wines, expertly made, from grapes.

I like home-made, maybe not so expert but at least no supermarket . I have only had quince wine a few times, 'bout 20 years ago and it was good and if I had a bigger garden it would be a tree I'd have

Also not a supermarket, lyme bay winery, not wine I can ordinarily afford but when we are sculking around the jurassic coast we will treat ourselves to a bottle. Having worked our way through the most of the wine menu I was hoping for a bottle of quince sometime this holiday *fingers crossed*

A quince recipe: Membrillos al vino
Cut the quinces and put them in a casserole with red wine, cardamom, starred anise, clove, sugar and cinnamom. Let them boil for 20 minutes. Now serve them with cream, mascarpone… and marry all that with an oloroso like Oporto or Pedro Ximenez.
A curiosity: if you put the seeds of the quinces into warm water and leave them a whole night so, you get a sort of transparente sticky jelly that is great for the stomach and constipation. It´s very mild, so a child can eat it.
When I was a child we use that jelly as glue.
In spain you´ll find carne de membrillo, (flesh of quince) it is jam, but so thick that is like a block and you have to cut it into slices to eat it.

http://www.google.es/search?q=carne+de+membrilllo&rls=com.microsoft:es:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ACAW_esES440&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=es&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=cKrvTvuTCoKE-wbhyvGJAg&biw=1093&bih=470&sei=earvTrVxg6aEB-HuqJk

Yes - we also find Spanish carne de membrillo in Posh Shops.