A different kind of fruit

Do you have any idea what these are?

I wouldn't have if my husbands cousin hadn't given them to me.

These are quince, they are not a very common fruit

and I guess that most of my family and friends don't have a clue

what they are and have never had them.

They have the look of an apple, but have a kind of fuzzy skin.

They are very hard and fibrous and extremely tart.

I had to try a small taste and although I could eat it, it isn't something

I'd want to take a big bite of.

Now, what to do with these quince?

I checked the internet and found a basic recipe for preparing them.

Here are several cut up in slices.

They turn brown quickly, even though I did put them into 

water as the instructions suggested.

They were easy to peel, cutting into sections wasn't too tough,

but cutting the core out was not so easy.  I did lose a bit of the

fruit doing this, but I got it done.

Next step was to cook them. 

They needed to be cooked for about an hour in a saucepan

in a water and sugar mixture with a little bit of vanilla.

After simmering for a good long time, they were soft and 

had made a syrupy liquid.

This picture doesn't show it too well, 

but they have a pinkish orange color once they are cooked.

Now for the taste test.

Hmmmmm!  Interesting!  They kind of have a bit of

flavor of apple, pear and peach combined.

At least that's what I got.

My husband didn't care for them though.

Me?  I liked them, but not enough to seek them out in the future.

Now what am I going to do with all this quince?

I'm going to share it with family and friends.

I think it would be good over some shortcake with whipped cream.

I might also make a cobbler combined with some apple

and take it to an event I'm going to this weekend.

I'm entering this for the 

Share Handmade Kindness Challenge

at Jennifer McGuire's Blog.

Go check it out, you might want to participate.

So there you go, my experience with quince.

I will probably never see one again in my life,

but I'm glad I got to try them.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you've learned something today.

Have you tried any "different" foods lately?

Hope to see you soon, you never know what you'll find on

Kristie Kreates.