Seek Out New Life Forms - What is a Quince?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 13, 2010 6:40PM

Despite our adventurous foodie-ness, we still tend to return to the same ingredients over and over again. Sometimes we encounter something new at a restaurant, but (unless it's alcoholic) it rarely gets incorporated into our repertoire. We walk past the same things over and over again in the supermarket with practically no idea what they are! Well, it's time for our curiosity to start running amuck.

The Quince is a curious fruit. It looks like a golden delicious apple, but we wouldn't recommend randomly biting into one. When you cut up a quince, the texture is a lot like very very firm apple, but when you taste it, your mouth puckers up like you drank the most tannic wine ever made. They are certainly not horrible, and not harmful, but quinces are not usually meant to be eaten raw.

Well, then, what the heck do you do with it? Quince jam is wonderful, and is actually much more common in stores than the raw fruit. One common suggestion is to poach them, much the same way you would poach a pear for a fragrant dessert - a great recipe from The Wednesday Chef uses vanilla and cinnamon for a syrup. Quince paste is a common European ingredient that we've seen served with fancy cheese plates, and is available at most gourmet food stores. The one way we'd try raw quince again? Try slicing it transparently thin and serving it with a very aromatic cheese - the tannins in the quince will really accentuate the flavor. Mix a little bit of quince in with some applesauce while it's cooking for a tart flavor.

In Chicago, you can find Quinces at Whole Foods, Fox and Obel and lots of local produce markets, but you might have to look hard. Don't pay more than $1.50 for one. Make sure it's intact and relatively bruise free, but you won't find one that isn't rock hard.