Quinces Galore

Anyone who has read a few of my posts will be aware that we grow a lot of our own food, and that the inevitable gluts that come along provide me with enjoyable challenges.

Maybe some of the gluts are not totally inevitable, with successional planting of veg etc, but big fruit trees suddenly yielding huge crops are another matter. The most interesting of these recent gluts has been the bumper harvest from a quince tree we planted about 15 years ago. Last year we got three fruits, the previous year we had a good haul, enough to give some to friends. This year is undoubtedly its biggest ever effort, with quite a few given to friends and our own diet enhanced by them.

What to do with quinces? I tend to think that membrillo is best left to the Spanish, pleasant though it is on occasion, and we don't use much jelly either. I have trawled through quite  few cookbooks for ideas, and those that appealed most have been explored, along with old favourites from harvests past.

The most accommodating in terms of using up a lot of fat fruits (they are things of beauty btw, or our variety - name long forgotten - is; there's something very Beryl Cook about their plump pear shape and blowsy yellow colouring) has been to add cubes to a lamb braise, then 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time throw in a load of slices. The cubes perfume the juices, and thicken them as they dissolve, the carefully cored slices keep their shape and yellow hue (gaining a hint of orange to be totally accurate), looking very lovely when served on a plain plate.

That dish was a big success, and I'm sure the fruit would work well with pork, ham and maybe Guinea fowl.

We've also had several variations on the theme of quince slices poached in syrup, with cinnamon, allspice, pepper, nutmeg, and coriander and fennel seeds adding weight, as have one-at-a-time  Marsala, white wine, and cider brandy. They've been stewed with apples (our variety cooks down as quickly as apples, contrary to the indications of most cookbooks) for breakfast, and even used - successfully - in a mixed vegetable stock for soup.

Again, contrary to several written sources, ours don't look like they'll store, though we have tried to keep them dry and separated. But that's part of the fun of the glut for the cook, making use of a fine ingredient while it lasts, and in many different ways so the rest of the family, while fed well with them, don't get fed up of them.