Cooking quince and its taste
Here we have to cook quince to make them yield, but that’s not such a trial. The trickiest part is the chopping: you need a good, heavy knife to push through the solid flesh of a quince. After that, it’s all about slow cooking with quince: baking, stewing, poaching. In such cooking their firmness is an asset as the fruit holds its shape and texture. The taste of quince is citrusy, but gentler and without the sharpness of a lime or lemon, so it can be a brightener of other flavours – the fruity component in a tagine, the lemony note in an apple pie – or can stand alone, baked mellow and pink (as the yellow flesh turns on slow cooking) with the spices of the season. Its sharp fruitiness makes it a great companion to meats and cheeses, in the classic Spanish quince cheese paste recipe membrillo or when poached and preserved in vinegar and spices.
Discover more about quince, how to grow quince and the history of quince
Baked quince recipe
This is a simple way to cook quince, which mellows their acidity using spices and honey. A great dish if you have never tried quince.
