"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Franz Heymann wrote:
Boggle. None of the quince trees I have ever seen would grow well
as a hedge, or be suitable for canes. Japonica would.

Nick, I received many a hiding with a quince "cane". In fact, in
Afrikaans
the common word for a "cane" is a "kweperlat", which, retranslated into
English simply becomes "quince stick". Part of the punishment routine
was
that the culprit had to go and cut the damn thing. And in case you ask,
the plants really were quinces and bore quinces as fruit. They looked
and
tasted precisely like the fruit called "quince" in England. And they
made
quince jelly which looks and tastes exactly like the quince jelly I have
eaten in England.

I did not say that I did not believe you. I was boggling. Most quince
trees in this country produce relatively brittle, short shoots. They
wouldn't be of much use for canes until they reach 2" thick - and I
doubt that you were beaten with 2" rods!

Either we are talking about two different plants, or the ones in SA had
adopted a different mode of growth (or vice versa)
The hedge of which I speak was not tended with any particular regularity and
was consequently quite unkempt. It produced many shoots circa 1 cm in
diameter and 1 metre long. Absolutely ideal for meting out chastisement.

In the town where my school was, we were fully familiar with "japonicas".
Incidentally, the quinces of which I speak had yet another use: They
made
excellent catapults.

Not a unique characteristic :-)

Anyway, true quinces are NOT high-acid when ripe, which can be seen
by the fact that jelly made from them needs lemon juice to set well
(or japonica).

The setting is not to do with the acidity, but with the presence of
sufficient pectins.
I do assure you most heartily that ripe quinces are sour.

Having eaten a lot, I don't regard them as sour. Anyway, the setting
of jelly needs pectin, acid and sugar. I can assure you that I tested
for pectin (and there was plenty), and there was enough sugar, but no
set. 50/50 quince and japonica gives a very good set.

It seems almost certain that your quinces were a different variety
to the common ones in the UK, but could they have been Pseudocydonia
sinensis (which I have never seen) rather than Cydonia oblonga?

I am also beginning to think we are talking about two different plants.
Some folk on this thread have talked about quinces as being
(1) Hard as a rock
(2) Pear shaped

The quinces of my youth could be (and were) slaughtered easily with a Boy
Scout's knife. They were only somewhat harder than a firm apple.
They were also not pear shaped at all. More like lumpy spheres of about 8
cm diameter. The lumpiness corresponded to a typical variation in radius
from a true sphere of around +- 5 mm. The surface was woolly, but the wool
rubbed off very easily.

The fruit had a delicious astringent-sweet-acid flavour. The jelly was a
must with lamb.

Franz