Quince

[Sir Velo]

We do not have Waitrose where I live.

No doubt, tripe and black pudding aplenty, though, eh?

[jean]

Of course. The question is, why am I presuming to concern myself with the essentially middle-class quince?

[french frank]

We do not have Waitrose where I live.

We don't have one very near me either - but I shall have to make a journey for passata and vermicelli tagliati as the Coop doesn't have them.

I shall see if my greengrocer has quince and ask if not, why not?

[gradus]

Round here I think they (quinces) are brought into farm shops by local people, hence the low prices - just £1 per kg (3 large-ish fruit) in a farm shop last Monday. Ripe quinces have a delightful smell and perfumed the car for a couple of days.

[vinteuil]

Of course. The question is, why am I presuming to concern myself with the essentially middle-class quince?

... good Lord, if I tho't quince was middle class - do you think I wd be bothering with it?!

[Sir Velo]

... good Lord, if I tho't quince was middle class - do you think I wd be bothering with it?!

Jeez, how on earth can a fruit represent a class?

Actually, Waitrose has got a good scam going, with pygmy quinces going at a quid each. The girl on the till had obviously not been properly brought up as she asked me "do you want those pears; they're going off, right"? I told her I liked them that way, and got the little furry darlings for the same price as the comice (40p).

[umslopogaas]

"Quince" is confusing because there are two different ones, both edible. What we have been talking about (or I have, anyway) is Cydonia oblonga, which is large, approx. pear shape, hard and yellow. There is also the Japanese quince, Chaenomeles japonica which has red flowers and is usually grown mainly as an ornamental. The fruit are spherical and greenish, the size of a small orange. I have never seen Chaenomeles for sale, though there is no reason why they shouldnt be: were the "pygmy" quinces Chaenomeles, Sir Velo? All the Cydonia I have ever seen are the size of very large pears.

[vinteuil]

I told her I liked them that way, and got the little furry darlings for the same price as the comice (40p).

... furry? furry??

I don't think they shd be furry. Are you sure you weren't fobbed off with kiwi fruit??

[jean]

Jeez, how on earth can a fruit represent a class?

In much the same way that tripe and black pudding do.

I think it's all to do with the Industrial Revolution. In this country, people migrated in their thousands from rural areas to the cities, and in doing so lost touch with the foods they had traditionally grown and eaten. Now, fruits such as quince and medlars are eaten either by those who still grow them, or by the middle classes who have discovered them (in Waitrose). You can go round my allotment site and pick out the middle-class incomers by the globe artichoke plants on their plots.

This detachment from their rural origins didn't happen in Italy for example, where it would be nonsense to think of any kind of food as the preserve of a particular class.

[Sir Velo]

Ok, "furry" was a slight rhetorical exaggeration for the woolly white pubescent covering which overlaid the skin in places. However, I can assure everyone that the floral scent is heady and overpowering in the extreme so definitely not chaenomoles japonica, pace Umslopogaas!

Roast pork belly with quince jelly accompaniment tonight, methinks!

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Sir V., sounds delicious!