Biskett Of Quinces

This recipe hails from around 1700 England, a period when quince was a prized fruit for preserves and sweetmeats. Known as the 'biskett' of quinces, it represents the high value placed on sugar and fruit confections in aristocratic households. These treats were both culinary delights and symbols of status, displayed on dessert tables at grand banquets. The recipe reflects the transition from medieval jellies to the more refined confections popular in the Georgian era. The source, from the manuscript referred to as V.b.272, offers a rare glimpse into the domestic kitchens of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, where handwritten collections of recipes often circulated among the gentry.

In the early 1700s, quinces were poached in a copper or brass pan over an open hearth. The pulp would be scraped with a blunt knife or spoon and forced through a cloth or fine hair sieve. Mixing was done in a heavy stoneware or pottery bowl with a sturdy wooden spoon—usually by hand, for long periods, to incorporate air and thoroughly blend the sugar and fruit. The thick paste was spooned into moulds lined with parchment or special oiled paper, then dried in a 'stove'—a heat-controlled drying room or a gently warmed bread oven, often left open to circulate air. The recipe called for patience and elbow grease, as mechanical mixers were a thing of the distant future.