To Keep Quinces Raw All The Year

This recipe is a remarkable window into 17th-century English domestic preservation, attributed to Elizabeth Fowler in 1684. At a time before refrigeration, fruit preservation was essential for ensuring a varied diet year-round. Quinces, prized for their aroma and tart flavor, were considered a delicacy and used extensively for both sweetmeats and as culinary ingredients. This method turns to a gentle ferment-like brine with honey, showing sophistication in balancing sweetness, acid, and salt for preservation. Women like Fowler were the custodians of such knowledge, recording, sharing, and carefully adapting recipes in their handwritten domestic manuscripts, which also speaks to the collaborative, evolving nature of early modern English cookery.

In the late 1600s, cooks would have used heavy stoneware, earthenware, or glazed ceramic pots for holding and fermenting the quinces. Boiling was done in copper or iron cauldrons over an open hearth or coal-fired stove. Straining would employ fine woven linen or muslin cloths and hand sieves. Waxed paper or bladder, pressed down onto the food surface, excluded air—a primitive version of what we now accomplish with airtight lids and clingfilm. Serving and later cookery would use wooden spoons, knives for peeling, and basic tin or earthenware baking dishes.