Fruit Maven » Quince http://fruitmaven.com Your guide through the wild world of fruit. Mon, 21 May 2012 17:54:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Pineapple Quince http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/pineapple-quince/ http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/pineapple-quince/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:41:23 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=987 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! Pineapple Quince
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.

]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/pineapple-quince/feed/ 4 Orange Quince http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/orange-quince/ http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/orange-quince/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:07:19 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=850 If you’ve ever overlooked the outward appearance only to find yourself perpetually waiting for the inner beauty, then this is the fruit for you! dsc_0333-small
APPEARANCE 3 out of 5 stars

Pale yellow skin with a thick layer of brown fuzz. This little fruit could use some grooming tips. Funky wobbly shape about the size of a softball with off-white flesh

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

Bright, fresh and very very appley with the slightest bit of lemon

TEXTURE 2 out of 5 stars

Really hard and dry, almost like biting in to fine wood

TASTE 1.5 out of 5 stars

Fairly dry, slightly spongy and tart

OVERALL 2.63 out of 5 stars

Everything I have read about Quince says they are too tart and astringent to eat raw. This particular variety doesn’t really have those problems, I could eat it if I really wanted to (no noticeable astringency to me), it just doesn’t taste good. It wasn’t that much more tart than a bad granny smith apple. That being said, apparently quince become all mystical and amazing once cooked, but dare I mention in the third post in a row that I prefer to be lazy and not have to chop and peel and cook and stuff just to eat a piece of fruit. So my apologies dear orange quince (also known as the apple-shaped quince), but you will not be scoring well on the snacking scale today.

FRUIT

Quince

VARIETY

Orange (aka: Apple-shaped)

PEAK

Fall -Winter

GROWN

California

PURCHASED

Farmer’s Market

NOTES

Lest you think I’ve let you down, (and so I don’t start receiving hate mail from quince lovers everywhere) I did poach these little funky girls. Sadly, I had also heard that quince turn a lovely shade of red when poached, but these did not. They stayed their pale yellow color, which I now know is normal for this variety. They tasted good I suppose with a complicated floral apple taste and a citrus undertone but I just can’t get that excited about them. I even baked them into a free form pie with the hidden rose apples I had leftover. “Eh.” That’s about all I can say about them. I do think I will try another variety though. I’ve just heard too many good things to let them go at one try.

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