ISSUE 55, FRUITS & FLAVOR, Part 5: Choosing a Quince
Choosing a Quince:
Keeping a half dozen quinces in a wooden bowl on a sideboard through the autumn makes the air in one’s home more alluring, seasonal, and rich than any plug-in air freshener. The perfume of the mellowing fruit—an intoxicating blend of violet, coconut, allspice, and pear—makes small hands seize the the round yellow fruit for a bite. And then the small face blooms in surprise as the astringent hard flesh seems to contradict the smell. Quinces must be processed to be sumptuous. Sugar or honey is added to a boil of sliced or shredded quince flesh. Then a beautiful mutation occurs, and flavors emerge that seem appropriate to the perfume. I’ve known a woman in Madison Georgia who uses the sugar to drive alcohol production in making quince wine, a beverage with a surprising nose and a refined flavor.
Several varieties of quince have been grown in the United States since the 18th century—and some have been developed by breeders in the past 200 years. The Champion is one of the best for beginning orchardists because of its resistance to most diseases. A solid yellow ovate pyriform fruit, the Champion Quince was showy and handsome—an ideal item to display on a produce table. It was considered the culinary equal of the Apple Quince, with fine flavor and piquant odor [William J. Course, Sinclair Nurseries (Baltimore, 1909), 2.] Its great commendation commercially was that it was the last quince to ripen in a season and fresh fruit would keep to Christmas. Bred in Georgetown, Connecticut, the tree proved extremely hardly, capable of being production from Florida to Southern Maine. It began bearing at age three or four. USDS GRIN Accession: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1001501.
"Tree extremely hardy, of stout, rugged, upright growth, a profuse and regular bearer, and its early bearing is remarkable, commencing to produce fruit at three and four years old. Fruit large, ovate pyriform in shape, and of a lovely yellow color, rendering it very showy and handsome; flesh tender; in fine flavor and odor it is fully equal to the well-known Orange variety. Ripens very late and will keep until Christmas." (William J. Course, Sinclair Nurseries Catalog, 1909, Baltimore MD, 2).
Among Europeans the Pear-shaped Quince is usually preferred. The favorite quince of the French, the “neck or upper part forms one-half or one-third of the length of the whole. The flesh is firm, tough, and dry, but it has a higher flavor than the apple-quince, and, for this reason, it is preferred by the French cooks” [Julia Colman, “The Quince,” The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health (November 1876), 394. USDA GRIN Accession: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1488280
"Medium or rather large, with a neck one half the length of the body; skin rather dulle, rich yellow; flesh firm, tough, dry, with a high flavor; a moderate bearer. Last of Oct." Staunton Nurseries Descriptive Catalogue, Staungton, VA 1858.
If fruit size is one’s fetish, Meech’s Prolific might be the choice. It was the only quince in American pomological history to become a fad fruit. The Meech’s Prolific Quince riveted the attention of growers when it became generally known that it could bear fruit on the second year after planting—no other fruit and no other variety of quince matched that speed of productivity. A pear-shaped fruit, with bright orange yellow skin, the average quince weighed from twelve to fifteen ounces [F. Walker & Company Nurseries (Louisville, 1907), 5.] The tree was such a prolific bearer of fruit that branches would split if some were not stripped from the tree early in the season. The fruit was admired for being entirely free of the lumps or hard spots that spontaneously appeared in the flesh of other varieties [William J. Course, Sinclair Nurseries (Baltimore, 1909), 2.]
A seedling variety first grown in Connecticulture in the early 1850s, the Meech's Prolific was named after its promoter, Rev. William W. Meech of Vineland, New Jersey. Distributed in the 1860s and 1870s to New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, it won the support of the influential pomologist Charles Downing. Itt became a fruit sensation of the 1890s in America. Meech first named it the Pear-shaped Orange Quince, but since this name confused it with the Orange Quince, and recommended it as "the most uniformly prolific of all known varieties" [Quince Culture (1883), there were significiant differences including the amount of fruit produced, pomologists named it after Meech. “Of delightful fragrance and delicious flavor; cooks as tender as a peach” [Frederick Nursery (Frederick MD, 1897), 23.]
All of these heirloom fruits remain available from nurseries. Quinces deserve attention because they can afford substantial pleasure without being cooked.