There is a growing interest for
vegetables and fruit from the past.
Compared to, say the seventeenth century, the variety in apples, pears and
plumbs has become less and less. Nowadays it is mainly those varieties that are
easy to grow, have a high produce, and are resistant to diseases (and the used
pesticides) that you can buy at the average greengrocer or supermarket. Although
there are idealists who are trying to conserve ancient varieties.
Quinces are -at least in the Netherlands- an almost forgotten fruit. They can
still be bought, but you'll have to look for them.
What are quinces? They belong to the
same family as apples and pears, the Rosaceae. The scientific name of the quince
is: Cydonia oblonga. The fragrant fruit, covered with greengrey down, originate
from the Caucasus. They were already greatly appreciated by the ancient Greeks.
The quince was dedicated to Aphrodite, and it is presumed that the famous golden
apple given to Aphrodite by Paris was in fact a quince.
Because of their fragrance quinces were used in perfumes and "air
fresheners".
You can't eat raw quinces. They are very, very firm, and also very sour. Quinces
are often cooked, but you can also roast them in the oven, like apples. Because
the fruit contains a lot of pectine they are very suitable to be used in
jellies.
Harvesttime is October/November, but you can keep quinces for a long time.
You find several recipes for quinces
in medieval cookbooks. In the Gent manuscript KANTL 15 ground pips of quinces
are used as coagulant in a red
wine jelly, they are being stewed,
and conserved.
The manuscript that the recipe for the cake was taken from, has more recipes for
quinces, such as a pasty where the quinces are put in whole, with marrow, sugar,
cinnamon and currants (recipe nr 42 and 171), they are made into a purée
(recipe nr
112 and 116), and they are being stewed (recipe nr 195 and
222).
The original recip, taken from ms UB Gent 476 (Edition
p.107, recipe nr 120). The text is taken from the manuscript, the interpunction
is from me.
Om een
sonderlijnge taerte te maken.
Neempt quee appelen gesoden in schoon watere ofte peeren gebraden vj of
vij,
amandelen gepelt een vierendeel pont, versche wrongel een vierendeel pont,
een hantvol rosijnen sonder steenen. Stootet tsamen wel cleyne ende soetet
met suycker ende caneele ende ander cruyt tot uwer belieften, vj of vij doren
van eyeren ende een vierendeel pont versche botere.
Item wanneer dat ghij dese taerten
maken wilt voor crancken menschen.
zo neempt inde stede vanden wrongel dat vleysch van een pertrijsse ofte
kieken dat gesoden is, laetet cleyn stooten.
To make a
special cake.
Take quinces, boiled in clean water, or pears roasted 6 or 7, a
quearterpound peeled almonds, a quarterpound fresh curd, a handful of
raisings without pips. Grind it well together and sweeten it with sugar and
cinnamon and other spices to taste, 6 or 7 egg yolks and a quarterpound
fresh butter.
When you want to make this cake for sick
people.
Then take instead of curd the boiled flesh of a partridge or chicken, and
let it grind well.
The
modernised recipe: A special cake with quinces.
When you bake a cake it is supposed to have a
crust. The recipe remains silent on this. That is not unusual in ancient
cookbooks: everyone knew the stuffing was meant to be baked in a crust, and
everyone knew how to make dough. It was considered superfluous to mention
this. This is why there are so few contemporary dough recipes. By the way,
often the crust of pasties and such were not meant to be eaten at all. They were
used like serving dishes, and sometimes even re-used.
On this page you find several recpes for dough for
savoury pasties. You can of course also use a recipe of your own. Just do me a
favour and don't use frozen supermarket-dough.
Ingredients:
6 quinces (about 3 pounds)
125 gram (1 cup) ground almonds
125 gram (1/2 cup) curd (soft curd cheese, NOT defatted)
125 gram (1/2 cup) unsalted butter at roomtemperature
75 gram (1/2 cup) raisins
50 gram (1/4 cup) sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. mixed spices (I used ginger, cardamom, all spice and cloves with a
ratio of 10:4:1:1 -note: together one teaspoon-, but you can use another
combination or ratio if you want to)
6 egg yolks dough for the crust
Preparation in advance:
Boil the peeled, cored and quartered quinces until soft (see the recipe for
jelly below). meanwhile prepare the dough. Use a simple dough for pasties, with
the addition of three tablespoons sugar.
According to the original recipe all ingrediënts for the stuffing must now be
ground in a mortar, but I prefer to add the raisins later and keep them whole.
So: Add everything except the raisins to a mortar or blender, and turn it into a
purée.
The amounts given are sufficient for two large flat pies, or two springforms
with a diameter of 22 cm. It is easy to make half the amount. However, if you
want to make the quince jelly, you might want to make the full amount.
Preparation:
Carefully grease a low cake mould or a springform, and sprinkle some flour on
the inside. Roll out the dough, drape it into the form. scoop the stuffing into
the dough-clad form, and decorate the cake or pie to your fancy. Bake the cake
in the oven (at 180 dgr C or 350 dgr F) for 40 to 50 minutes. Check whether the
stuffing is done, remove the cake from the oven. Let the cake rest for five
minutes, then take it out of the mould. Let the cake cool on a cake-rack.
To Serve: What would be the ideal moment to serve a special cake as this? At tea-time
of course, maybe as a special birthday treat, or as a (rich) dessert to finish a
meal. Not necessarily with whipped cream. That was still very special in those
days and was served as a separate dish.
If you decided to make the quince jelly too, you could compose a "grand
dessert", with (warm) cake, a spoonful of jelly, and cream, whipped with a
few drops of rose water (no sugar). The recipe below for the quince jelly is two
hundred years younger than the cake recipe, but there are also
contemporary recipes to be found. I just fancied this one.
According to the recipe for quince
cake quinces must be boiled, pears roasted. I think you can use both methods for
both kinds of fruit. If you have boiled your quinces, you can use this recipe to
use the cooking liquid of the quinces.
This recipe is taken from a cookbook from the late eighteenth century, but
recipes for quince jelly are to be found in all ages. There are medieval
versions, but also recipes from the twentieth century. I took the proportions
for quinces/water/sugar from Ma Cuisine (1934) by Auguste Escoffier.
This recipe was taken from Nieuwe
Vaderlandsche Kookkunst from 1797 (edition
p.131/132).
GELéE VAN QUEEëN, in een
vorm.
De queeën geschild zynde, snydt menze in stukjens, die men in water laat
uittrekken: kookze vervolgends eenvoudig, naar gewoonte, gaar; doe voords het
nat dat 'er op is door een zeef; roer 'er dan een pond suiker door, en laat het
weder kooken tot het styf wordt; men moet onder dit kooken wèl op het schuimen
passen: gaar zynde doet men de gelée in een vorm, die van binnen met
amandelöly besmeerd is: laatze voords in de vorm koud worden, en keer dezelve
dan op een assiet om.
Jelly of
quinces, in a mould.
When de quinces are peeled, you cut them in pieces that you let stand in
water. Then boil them simply, as usual, until done. Sieve the remaining
cooking liquid [through a sieve], stir in a pound of sugar, and let this
boil again until it becomes stiff. One should not forget to skim during
boiling. When it is done you pour the jelly in a mould that has been
greased on the inside with almond oil. Then let them cool in the mould,
end turn this on a dish.
Ingredients:
for every pound of quinces 1 litre water
for 1 litre water 800 gram sugar
tasteless oil, or almond oil
a nice jelly mould
Preparation in advance:
Wipe the down from the quinces and wash them. Peel, core and quarter the quinces. Immediately immerse them in cold water to
prevent decolourisation. Measure the amount of water needed (for every pound of
quinces one litre water). Keep the peel and cores, wrap them in a cheesecloth.
Boil the quinces until they are soft (30 minutes). Take the quinces out of the
water, sieve the cooking liquid.
Preparation:
Return the sieved cooking liquid to the (cleaned) pan. Add the sugar and the
cloth with peels and cores, and bring
to the boil again. Skim regularly. Continue boiling the liquid at a low heat
until it has thickened enough. You can check this by dropping a drop from the
pan onto a cold plate. When the droplet maintains its convex form and doesn't
run, the jelly is done. It took four hours when I made this jelly. You have to
remain alert: if you stop to soon, the jelly will not be firm enough and keep
running (but it will be very tasty!). On the other hand, if you leave the pan on
the fire for too long, or the fire is too high, the sugar will burn and you end
up with a bitter and unpalatable (and rock-hard) jelly.
Another method, which I have not tried myself (yet), is to place the pan in the
oven on a very low temperature (60 degr.C) for several hours.
Grease one or more jelly-moulds with a neutral oil, and pour the warm jelly into
it. Let cool completely.
To serve:
Immerse the mould a short while in hot water. cover it with the serving dish,
and turn mould and dish in one movement. If you are lucky, you'll end up with a
beautiful ruby-coloured jelly on your plate. To be honest: I was not so lucky.
At first the jelly absolutely refused to budge, and when I had immersed it
longer, I ended up with an unattractive blob. Maybe, to be on the safe side, it
is best to use a simple rectangular form, cover that with an oiled silicone
sheet, and trying to cut that mass after cooling into little squares. It is
super sticky, but the taste is wonderful.
This jelly is very rich. Only serve small amounts as garnish for desserts, or
dish it out as candy.
Extra extra
In ms UB Gent 476 you can find two ways to conserve quinces for a whole year.
For most of us these methods will not be applicable, because you need some
things that will not be found today in the average household.
When you have had a good quince year and despair what to do with them, start
with conserving: You need a small cask. Cover the bottom with a layer of wine
lees, lay down quinces in one layer, add more winelees, more quinces et cetera.
Cover the cask with a lid, and keep in on a shelf.
Another method which can also be used to conserve grapes: Sieve the ashes from
the hearth (or BBQ), lace the zuinces in such a way that they do not touch
eachother, and cover them with the ashes. (edition
p.104). I presume the quinces are in one layer.
Edition
of ms UB Gent 476: Ria Jansen-Sieben and Johanna Maria van Winter, De
keuken van de Late Middeleeuwen. (The kitchen of the Late Middle Ages)
Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, 1989 (revised edition ..) Auguste Escoffier, Ma
Cuisine. I used a Dutch translation (HES uitg., 1988). Escoffier, Ma Cuisine English Edition.
Nieuwe
vaderlandsche kookkunst, Bevattende een volledig en grondig
onderricht, om, naar den hedendaagschen smaak, toetebereiden allerleie soorten
van spyzen [...], door twee in dit vak zeer ervarene huishoudsters (New
national art of cookery, comprising a complete and thorough instruction to
prepare, according to the present-day taste, all kinds of food, by two in this
profession very experienced house-keepers.) . Johannes
Allart, Amsterdam, 1797. Facsimile edition C. de Vries-Brouwers,
Amsterdam/Antwerpen, 1976.
