Pineapple Quince

Fruit Maven — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:41:23 +0000

If you are still lamenting the fact that you didn’t get to pucker up for new year’s eve this year, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 4.5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful, smooth shiny lemon yellow skin, jumbly bumpy apple shape with a big snout on the end.

AROMA 5 out of 5 stars

Focused apple flavor with hints of sweet lemon – love the smell.

TEXTURE 2.5 out of 5 stars

Very dry, hard flesh with quite an astringent feel in the mouth.

TASTE 1.5 out of 5 stars

Eating this raw is like eating the greenest banana you have ever had mixed with a little bit of lemon sour pixie dust – however, not that much worse than a really sour granny smith apple.

OVERALL 3.38 out of 5 stars

This is my second attempt at quince and at least this one delivered the promised astringency. I don’t really taste anything reminiscent of a pineapple however. I can’t say I understand the general negligence of this fruit though. Sure in its raw state (I know its divine cooked, I know) it tastes like a really bad banana with the texture of a really bad apple and the sour edge of a bad lemon, but a raw cranberry is pretty pathetic and puckery too and yet we all clamor to cook them at Thanksgiving here in the US. Better branding and public relations I suppose.

FRUIT

Quince

VARIETY

Pineapple

PEAK

Fall-Winter

GROWN

Unknown

PURCHASED

Specialty Produce

NOTES

On my post about orange quince, a lovely reader commented that she likes to slice quince, mix with sugar and make refrigerator syrup. That sounded like the easiest quince recipe ever, so I tried it with these pineapple quince. The jar has been marinating for a month now and I dare say the syrup is quite good! That being said, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it, so I poured a little of it out, topped it off with rum and plan to let it sit for another month. What can I say? I was inspired by the limoncello and I’m way more inclined to drink a cocktail than to make a fancy dessert.

RECIPES

Quince Preserves
Tunisian Lamb and Quince Stew

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