Quinces: Recipes for Baked Quinces and a Quince Sambal
Unloved and perhaps perceived as unlovely, quinces are a curiosity for many cooks who did not grow up with the fragrant fruit. Like apples, they ripen in fall, and come to market at the same time. Photography by Marie Viljoen. Pale yellow or light green, quinces resemble bumpy apples, and are sometimes covered in soft fuzz. Salting the raw, grated fruit tames its tannins, while cooking makes quinces versatile enough to be eaten as a dessert, a preserve, a jelly (like membrillo), or as a savory addition to North African tagines and other meaty dishes. Local quinces are sold from fall through late winter. While the fruit requires summer rainfall, the humid, tropical summers of the Northeast are not ideal. My own quince background belongs to South Africa, where the fruit is associated with the dusty roads of farms in the Karoo and Overberg regions, and where they hang like fat, pale moons on branches bent low by their weight in late summer. Quinces at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan in January. It is essentially a transcribed, invaluable oral history, published posthumously from a manuscript Gerber completed in 1949, which was found in her belongings after she died in 1954. New York quinces atop South African food traditions. Grated raw quince, ready for a sambal. From Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays, Helda Gerber. Put the fruit pulp into a little bowl and add a chilli and some red vinegar. Fir needles ground up with sugar are a delectable winter filling for baked quinces. Juniper and fresh bay leaves perfume baked quinces. A caramelized exterior hides a gentle, cooked quince heart. Resinously fragrant juniper (Juniperus virginiana, in this case) and aromatic bay leaves emphasize the delicious scent of quinces and complement the fruit’s gentle flavor. Cut the tough cores from the quinces. Place the fruit in a baking dish in a single layer.