Quince, a fruit My week was one of those that is semi-busy. My weekend with my daughters here was wonderful, we got a lot done, including defrosting my chest type freezer, hanging curtains, vacuuming, etc., etc. My house was pretty spotless when they left, and there wasn’t a dish in the sink, nor a bed that had not been changed and made over, and all towels were clean and in the linen closet! Girls, your work was truly appreciated. I worked two days in the gift shop, as someone was out Not too busy and I always enjoy working a different day, and seeing different people. Since we had a shipment of merchandise in, I was able to help price and get it displayed, and everything is nice and neat with new fall merchandise and lots of things for October, Breast Cancer Awareness month. When I left Devine and headed home, I had to stop for gas in Pleasanton, and since I knew company was coming, a trip to the HEB grocery store was pretty close to the top of my list. When I got to the fruits and vegetables, one of the first things I noticed was a display of what I thought was Golden Delicious apples, instead, I was looking at a fruit by the name of “Quince”. I had heard of these in the past by never seen them, also, since I read quite a bit, I’ve seen them mentioned in different books, but knew nothing about them. Time for an article! People often ask me where I get my ideas…this was one of those times.
Quince is the only member of the genus Cydonia. A quince is a hard aromatic gold/yellow fruit which sometimes has a slightly fuzzy skin. It is similar to a pear in shape and appearance. Ripe fruits are hard, very tart and astringent. One article I read doing research for this said that they could be eaten out of hand like and apple or pear, but others said not to do this, that they had to be cooked to be edible. When cooked, the flesh turns a beautiful pink. They are made into jams, marmalade, a reddish looking paste and also sometimes into an alcoholic beverage. In size, they are similar to a regular apple, but there the similarity disappears. Turkey produces over one-fourth of the world’s total of quince, and they have been around for centuries. In fact, it was included in the diet of the ancient Greeks and Romans and even figured in stories set in those times. There was so much information that I finally gave up. You can check on Wikipedia, a long article by Martha Steward appeared, as well as lots of information from Food and Wine, Taste of Home and All Recipes. There were numerous recipes, but most sounded a little more complicated than I am used to and some called for unusual ingredients. With Halloween on the way, I thought you might like a really old-fashioned recipe for pop-corn balls! Each year, at Halloween, my neighbor makes popcorn balls and all of us in the neighborhood find one either in our newspaper sleeve or our mail box. She is such a sweet and thoughtful neighbor!
Old Fashioned Popcorn Balls
1 cup sugar
½ cup Grandma’s® Molasses
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
3 Tbs. butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 quarts popped corn, (unsalted)
Combine sugar, molasses, syrup, water and salt in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Boil gently to the hard ball stage (250ºF) or test a small amount of syrup dropped in cold water. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Pour over popped corn and stir to coat thoroughly. Form quickly into medium-sized balls. To prevent sticking, grease hands and spoon. Makes 1 dozen.