THE TRANSFORMATION 

 OF THE QUINCE 



WHAT WAS ONLY A COOKING FRUIT Now DELICIOUS 



RAW 



IT IS said that Henry Ward Beecher once gave a 

 formula for cooking the quince. His rule was 

 this : Take one quince, one barrel of sugar, and 

 sufficient water. 



This rule was given, I hasten to explain, at a 

 time when my Pineapple quince had not been 

 developed. 



Had Mr. Beecher tasted one of these perfected 

 quinces he would have seen that his joke no 

 longer had its former force. For my Pineapple 

 quince, and one or two others that have been de- 

 veloped even more recently, retain very little of 

 that acrid quality which Mr. Beecher's barrel of 

 sugar was designed to hide. 



On the contrary, the new quinces, when fully 

 ripe, are to be compared in texture of pulp and 

 in edibility with some of the best apples, rather 

 than with their quince forebears; and at the same 



[VOLUME IV CHAPTER VII] 



