Quinces are now in season but in my town they are nowhere to be found. They are not on the standard supermarket fruit list which is offered 12 months of the year. They are not even on offer in our one independent greengrocer.
If you are not familiar with quince - it is basically a cooking pear. It has a hard flesh which if cooked for a long period turns a red colour. However I have hardly ever eaten it in this country. I recall my grandmother talking about growing and making things with quince but do not recall her ever serving anything. Perhaps that was from the time before I was born when she lived in the Kentish orchard country. I have heard of people making quince jelly and found the same at a cheese counter at Sainsburys in Reading once.
Abroad I have had it more often, for example on a trip to France last year. My late mother-in-law in Holland regularly boiled stoof peren (literally 'stove pears') and served them with meat and potato dishes in the Autumn. However they have been obviously historically part of our diet as shown by Ivan Day's Historic Food website. That website even states
There are far more recipes for quinces in seventeenth century English cookery books than for any other orchard fruit.
I bought the quinces in the photo in Holland a few days ago. They seem to be readily available there. I will make my first attempt to use them in due course.
2007-10-31 @ 16:20