Tonight in Help Me Choose

[minoanmiss]

I have three quinces.

I have no idea where ripe quinces came from in July (their season is the fall) but there they were in Wegman's, so I bought three.

I can't decide what to do with them. I could:

1) Slice and candy them, find a way to dehydrate them (either pull my dehydrator out of storage or wait till my roommates are out overnight, open all the windows, and put them in the oven on the so-low-it-leaks-gas setting) and add them to my candy stash to give away

2) puree them and make more Oxblood Candy

3) grate them and make quince ratafia (alcoholic drink)

4) grate them and make quince syrup (nonalcoholic drink)

5) bake them and eat them with yogurt

6) Something else you my friends suggest.

Three is an optimal amount for any recipe so I don't really want to make more than oen recipe. (also, time and stuff). But what should I make?

Comments

[baranduin]

2 or 5

OOH, yummy!

[dialecticdreamer]

My vote is for quince syrup.

What is Oxblood Candy???

Re: OOH, yummy!

[ororo]

Delicious! I'll let her describe it, but she sent some and it is over the moon yummy

Re: OOH, yummy!

[minoanmiss]

Oxblood candy is a very dark form of quince paste I accidentally recreated by baking my quince paste too hot -- it kept cooking, through pink to red to DEEEP DARK RED, becoming more and more flavorful as it went.

Re: OOH, yummy!

[dialecticdreamer]

MUST TRY THIS!

(looking around sheepishly, then intently, and finally hunting under cushions and behind the dishwasher)

Alas! Not a quince in sight!

Re: OOH, yummy!

[minoanmiss]

Kalustyan's actually sells them reasonably by the pound and ships them fairly quickly.

WRONG company, I meant Kalamata
https://www.kalamala.com/products/fresh-california-quincebeh

[pameladean]

I'm against 1 because yikes. Maybe 4?

P.

[hitchhiker]

the ratafia sounds interesting!

[amaebi]

I second the ratafia-- in the name of the Patronesses of Almack's!

[acelightning73]

I vote for quince syrup. You can use it to prepare a drink, but you can also add it to other things. Most European cake recipes call for moistening a baked sponge cake with syrup (usually flavored with a specific liqueur depending on what filling or icing will be used on the cake). I don't know what quinces taste like, but I would bet that quince syrup would be an unusual and delicious addition to such a cake.

I've got a cookbook from the 1700s downstairs, which includes many recipes for quinces. I think I once sent you a few of them. Let me go get the cookbook and find things you can use your quinces for.

[lunabee34]

Candy!!!

[redbird]

5, because it's the choice that makes sure you will get to eat quince.

[minoanmiss]

*blush* But I want to share them! (I do want to eat them, though. Maybe I'll make two small recipes)

[redbird]

Sharing is cool, but at least some of those looked like "I will make this thing, and give all of it away."

[minoanmiss]

blushes a lot

[libitina]

I vote for syrup because this is a good summer for drinking Sekanjabin.

But alcohol sounds like the method that uses the least heat, and you could still use small doses to spike some seltzer or lemonade.

[stranger]

1 or 3

[ororo]

Go for the syrup.

Option 6? ;-)

[ng_moonmoth]

You can simply slice them and dine if you can have the appropriate accompaniment (mince) and equipment (a runcible spoon) -- in which case dancing on the sand with the love of your life is likely to follow. Of your specific choices: 3, then 1.

Re: Option 6? ;-)

[minoanmiss]

That is deeply adorable, but quinces are really too astringent to eat raw.

(BWEE, I do love the suggestion. :)

Re: Option 6? ;-)

[ng_moonmoth]

Yeah, I know -- but also yeah, it was too cute to pass up. Maybe having the right spoon makes them less astringent.

[magid]

I think I'd tend towards #2 myself.

(And now you have me wondering if quince paste is often served at quinceaneras? :-)

[tibicina]

Not usually. It totally could be, but... not at any of the ones I've been to.

I mean, I know you were making a joke, but I am constitutionally incapable of not answering questions.

[minoanmiss]

giggle

[anna_wing]

Oh I missed this! What did you do in the end? My housekeeper has just made a very nice quince pie, most of which is in the freezer.

One other them you can do is to slice them very thin and dry them. They can then be used to make drinks (with sugar), or put in soup to add sourness.

[minoanmiss]

I am going to candy 1&1/2 and poach 1&1/2 . :)

[anna_wing]

That sounds lovely! If you want additional flavours, adding ginger juice or julienned ginger and a bit of lemon juice is nice for the candy. I've poached them in spices, and that works very well too. Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, ginger (again), dried orange peel.

[minoanmiss]

Right now I have cardamom pods and lemon peel in with the candy ad ginger juice in the poaching ones. I'm going to dust the candy with "pumpkin pie spice", a popular US mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. The particular brand I have also includes cardamom and lemon peel.

[anna_wing]

Oh so that's what "pumpkin spice" is! I remember Google producing quite baffling results once when I tried looking it up (lots of entries about Starbucks coffee).

That sounds delicious, do update on how they come out.