Thequince (/ˈkwɪns/;Cydonia oblonga) is the sole member of thegenusCydonia in theMalinae subtribe (which contains apples, pears, and other fruits) of theRosaceaefamily. It is adeciduous tree that bears hard, aromatic bright golden-yellowpome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear. Ripe quince fruits are hard, tart, and astringent. They are eaten raw or processed into jam,quince cheese, or alcoholic drinks.
The quince tree is sometimes grown as anornamental plant for its attractive pale pink blossoms and as a miniaturebonsai plant. In ancient Greece, the word for quince was used ribaldly by poets such asAristophanes to signify teenage breasts.[2]
Quinces are shrubs or small trees up to 4 to 6 metres (13 to 20 feet) tall and 3 to 4.5 metres (10 to 15 feet) wide. Young twigs are covered in a grey down.[3] The leaves are oval, and are downy on the underside. The solitary flowers, produced in late spring after the leaves, are white or pink.[4]
The ripe fruit is aromatic but remains hard; grittystone cells are dispersed through the flesh.[3] It is larger than many apples, weighing as much as 1 kilogram (2.2 lb), often pear-shaped but sometimes roughly spherical.[3]
The seeds containnitriles, common in the seeds ofthe rose family. In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to behydrolysed and produce toxichydrogen cyanide, which is a volatile gas. The seeds are toxic only if eaten in large quantities.[5]
As a sacred emblem ofAphrodite, a quince figured in a lost poem ofCallimachus that survives in a prose epitome: seeing his beloved in the courtyard of the temple of Aphrodite, Acontius plucks a quince from the "orchard of Aphrodite", inscribes its skin and furtively rolls it at the feet of her illiterate nurse, whose curiosity aroused, hands it to the girl to read aloud, and the girl finds herself saying "I swear by Aphrodite that I will marryAcontius". A vow thus spoken in the goddess'stemenos cannot be broken.[13]Pliny the Elder mentions "numerous varieties" of quince in hisNatural History and describes four.[14]
Quinces are ripe on the tree only briefly: the Roman cookbookDe re coquinaria ofApicius specifies in attempting to keep quinces, to select perfect unbruised fruits and keep stems and leaves intact, submerged in honey and reduced wine.[15]
Cydonia is in the subfamilyAmygdaloideae.[16] The modern name originated in the 14th century as a plural ofquoyn, viaOld Frenchcooin fromLatincotoneum malum /cydonium malum, ultimately fromGreek κυδώνιον μῆλον,kydonion mēlon "Kydonian apple".
Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub which adapts to many soils of low to mediumpH. It tolerates both shade and sun, but sunlight is required to produce larger flowers and ensure fruit ripening. It is a hardy plant that does not require much maintenance, and tolerates years without pruning or major insect and disease problems.[17]
Quince is cultivated on all continents in warm-temperate and temperate climates. It requires a cooler period of the year, with temperatures under 7 °C (45 °F), to flower properly. Propagation is done bycuttings orlayering; the former method produces better plants, but they take longer to mature than by the latter. Named cultivars are propagated by cuttings or layersgrafted on quincerootstock. Propagation by seed is not used commercially. Quince forms thick bushes, which must be pruned and reduced into a single stem to grow fruit-bearing trees for commercial use. The tree isself-pollinated, but it produces better yields whencross-pollinated.[17]
Fruits are typically left on the tree to ripen fully. In warmer climates, it may become soft to the point of being edible, but additional ripening may be required in cooler climates. They are harvested in late autumn, before first frosts.[17] Quince is used as rootstock for certain pear cultivars.[17]
In Europe, quinces are grown in small amounts; typically one or two quince trees are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees.[18] In the 18th-century New England colonies, there was always a quince at the lower corner of the vegetable garden, Ann Leighton notes in records ofPortsmouth, New Hampshire andNewburyport, Massachusetts.[19]: 243 Charlemagne directed that quinces be planted in well-stocked orchards. Quinces in England are first recorded in about 1275, when Edward I had some planted at the Tower of London.[18]
While quince is a hardy shrub, it may develop fungal diseases in hot weather, resulting in premature leaf fall.[17]Quince leaf blight, caused by fungusDiplocarpon mespili, presents a threat in wet summers, causing severe leaf spotting and early defoliation, affecting fruit to a lesser extent.[21] Cedar-quince rust, caused byGymnosporangium clavipes, requires two hosts to complete its life cycle, one usually ajuniper, and the other a member of theRosaceae. Appearing as red excrescence on various parts of the plant, it may affect quinces grown near junipers.[22]
A raw quince is 84% water, 15%carbohydrates, and contains negligible fat andprotein (table). In a 100-gram (3+1⁄2-ounce) reference amount, the fruit provides 238 kilojoules (57 kilocalories) offood energy and a moderate amount ofvitamin C (17% of theDaily Value), with no othermicronutrients in significant percentage of the Daily Value (table).
Quinces have intense aroma, flavour, and tartness; most varieties are too hard and tart to be eaten raw. They may be cooked or roasted and used for jams, marmalade, jellies, or pudding.[17] A few varieties, such as 'Aromatnaya'[29] and 'Kuganskaya', can be eaten raw.[30] High inpectin, they are used to makejam,jelly and quincepudding, or they may be peeled, then roasted, baked or stewed; pectin levels diminish as the fruit ripens.[31] Long cooking with sugar turns the flesh of the fruit red due to the presence of pigmentedanthocyanins.[32]
The strong flavour means they can be added in small quantities to apple pies and jam. Adding a diced quince to apple sauce enhances the taste of the apple sauce. The term "marmalade", originally meaning a quince jam, derives frommarmelo, thePortuguese word for this fruit.[33][34][35]
Quince cheese or quince jelly originated from theIberian Peninsula and is a firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard paste made by slowly cooking down the quince fruit with sugar.[36] It is calleddulce de membrillo in the Spanish-speaking world, where it is eaten withmanchego cheese.[37]
Quince is used in theLevant, especially inSyria. It is added to either chicken orkibbeh to create an intense and unique taste such as withkibbeh safarjaliyeh.[38]
In theBalkans, quinceeau-de-vie (rakija) is made. Ripe fruits of sweeter varieties are washed and cleared of rot and seeds, then crushed or minced, mixed with cold or boiling sweetened water andyeast, and left for several weeks to ferment. The fermented mash isdistilled once, obtaining a 20–30ABV, or twice, producing an approximately 60% ABV liquor. The two distillates may be mixed or diluted with distilled water to obtain the final product, containing 42–43% ABV.[39][40]
InCarolina in 1709, the explorer and naturalistJohn Lawson wrote that he was "not a fair judge of the different sorts of Quinces which they call Brunswick, Portugal and Barbary", but "of this fruit they make a wine or liquor which they call Quince-Drink and which I approve of beyond any drink that their country affords ... The Quince-Drink most commonly purges".[41]
Ancient Greek poets such asIbycus andAristophanes used quinces (kydonia) as a mildlyribald term for teenage breasts.[2]InPlutarch'sLives,Solon is said to have decreed that "bride and bridegroom shall be shut into a chamber, and eat a quince together."[42] The heroHercules is associated withgolden apples; these are thought by some scholars probably to have been quinces.[8] When a baby is born in the Balkans, a quince tree is planted as a symbol of fertility, love and life.[17]Edward Lear's 1870nonsense poemThe Owl and the Pussycat contains the lines[43]
They dined on mince, and slices of quince Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon.
^abFoster, Benjamin Oliver (1899). "Notes on the Symbolism of the Apple in Classical Antiquity".Harvard Studies in Classical Philology.10:39–55.doi:10.2307/310298.JSTOR310298.
^Zohary, Daniel; Hopf, Maria; Weiss, Ehud (2012).Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Domesticated Plants in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin.Oxford University Press. p. 144.ISBN978-0-19-954906-1.
^abcAbdollahi, Hamid (2021). "Quince".Temperate fruits. Apple Academic Press. pp. 183–246.ISBN978-1-003-04586-1.
^Lauffenburger, Olivier (2006)."supurgillu".The Hittite Grammar Homepage, Akkadian Dictionary. Archived fromthe original on 27 September 2007 – via premiumwanadoo.com.
^Lyle, Katie Letcher (2010) [first published 2004].The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts: How to Find, Identify, and Cook Them (2nd ed.). Guilford, Connecticut:FalconGuides. p. 110.ISBN978-1-59921-887-8.OCLC560560606.
^abcdefgCarlton, Deb (2013). "Quince". In Cumo, Christopher (ed.).Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants: From Acacia to Zinnia, Volume III. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 855–858.ISBN978-1-59884-775-8.
^Marcus, Jacqueline B. (2013). "Global Food and Nutrition: Spanish Cheese".Culinary Nutrition. Elsevier. pp. 545–605.doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-391882-6.00012-1.ISBN978-0-12-391882-6.Manchego is made from pasteurized sheep's milk. It pairs with salmon or lamb and is often eaten with dulce de membrillo (quince paste).
^"Dunjevača izuzetne arome i ukusa" [Quince brandy of exceptional aroma and taste] (in Serbian). Poljoprivreda.info. 22 November 2003. Retrieved3 February 2020.
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