459: Quince
Molly:
I'm Molly.
Matthew:
And I'm Matthew.
Molly:
And this is Spilled Milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any.
Matthew:
And this week, we're talking about quince or quinces?
Molly:
Quince. Quince.
Matthew:
And the plural is also quince?
Molly:
Oh, I don't know.
Matthew:
I don't either.
Molly:
I guess it is. I usually say quince as though it's the plural, like I wouldn't say, "And today, we're talking about apple."
Matthew:
That's true.
Molly:
Right?
Matthew:
Well, I mean, if we were reporting, if we became a tech podcast, if we were reporting on like the new iPad.
Molly:
Yeah.
Matthew:
What does it do that the old iPad couldn't do?
Molly:
Oh, yeah, there is a new iPad, isn't there?
Matthew:
Yes. It's very exciting. I don't know anything about it.
Molly:
Cool. Okay. Well, anyway, today we're talking about quince, quinces.
Matthew:
Yeah, speaking of things I don't know anything about, let me start with one question for you. What the fuck is a quince? I literally have no idea. And you suggested-
Molly:
Are you serious?
Matthew:
I'm serious. You suggested this topic. I'm like, okay, I know that's a food. You're going to do the research. I'm just going to let you teach me what this is.
Molly:
Oh, my God, I love that you waited to tell me this until we were actually recording.
Matthew:
Oh, I'm so glad because I'm like, "Either Molly is going to love or hate this bit."
Molly:
Oh, my God, wait a minute. You've never eaten quince?
Matthew:
I think I've eaten quince paste on a cheese plate. And I know about, I learned about the existence of quince from the movie White Men Can't Jump. This is now memory lane. There was a period in my life when I watched the movie White Men Can't Jump like 17 times, because it was always on basic cable. I thought it was a very funny movie. I haven't watched it in a long time, but I think it's a good movie.
Matthew:
And there's a part in the movie where Rosie Perez is studying to get on Jeopardy. when I was watching this, I had no idea that someday that would be me, that I would be Rosie Perez. In the course of, she's studying with Woody Harrelson and he's quizzing her, just like when we went to Oklahoma and you and Abby were quizzing me. And one of the facts she learns is that a quince is a fruit that might've been the fruit in the garden of Eden. Then when she's on Jeopardy, that comes up and she gets it right, and she wins.
Molly:
Wow. Okay. This is how you learned about quince.
Matthew:
This is how I learned about quince. And that is now everything I know about quince.
Molly:
Oh, interesting.
Matthew:
That's not true. I've seen a quince. I think it sort of looks like a pear, but you don't eat it like a pear, maybe.
Molly:
Okay. Well, thank goodness I'm here.
Matthew:
I say that every week.
Molly:
So, okay, time for my memory lane.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
I think I learned about quince in the form of quince paste, which is the only form you say you've eaten it in, is that right?
Matthew:
Yes, and I couldn't tell you what it tastes like, based on that. This might have happened once, back when I would go to the kind of restaurant that would have a cheese plate.
Molly:
Okay. Well, so when I was in college, I used to work during the summers at a Whole Foods Market in Mill Valley, California. Shout out to the Mill Valley Whole Foods.
Matthew:
Shout out to the Mill Valley Film Festival.
Molly:
The first year that I worked there, the guy who was essentially my boss... I was working at the cheese counter, and the guy who was essentially my boss had spent many years living in Spain. So, he taught me a lot about Spanish cheeses. And gosh, I mean, I remember that guy very well, actually. I think that working in the cheese section at Whole Foods was really...
Matthew:
Formative?
Molly:
It was really formative. I loved that job.
Matthew:
It was really Fourme d'Ambert-ative.
Molly:
Yeah, nice job. I like Fourme d'Ambert.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah, I think we had it on a cheese plate, on the cheese plate episode. It was great, yeah.
Molly:
Really nice creamy blue cheese. All right. So, I think this guy's name was Clark. He was a really good manager. And he taught me about this thing called membrillo, or quince paste, sometimes referred to I think, as quince cheese, but that kind of grosses me out.
Matthew:
Yeah. I saw that on the agenda. Yeah, I don't like that.
Molly:
I wonder if that's a Britishism.
Matthew:
Could be. British listeners...
Molly:
Let us know.
Matthew:
Quince cheese, is this a thing you say a lot?
Molly:
Anyway, so, Clark, I remember, taught me about pairing membrillo or quince paste with manchego cheese.
Matthew:
I mean, that sounds good, because manchego cheese is good.
Molly:
Yeah. So, yeah, the salty sheep's milk cheese with this sort of tangy, but not, not too tangy sort of jammy. The thing about quince, what I think of when I think of quince is first and foremost, the fragrance of it. It has such an incredible fragrance. And we're talking just the fruit itself.
Matthew:
Oh, this is your opportunity to put an aroma into words, since I have no idea what a quince smells like.
Molly:
Wow. It is a deeply...
Matthew:
Upsetting.
Molly:
Perfumy fruit smell, like, okay, you know how when you cook apples, the smell is just... If you're cooking apple sauce or an apple pie or something, the smell fills your house, and it is this deeply evocative... It's more than just a fruity smell. There's a perfume to it.
Matthew:
Yeah. I do know what you mean. I have actually had an apple.
Molly:
Matthew, you are driving me nuts, and we're only like five minutes into this show.
Matthew:
Wait, can I ask a question?
Molly:
Yes.
Matthew:
Just to push my luck. Did you ever see Clark and Superman in the same place?
Molly:
No. I didn't actually.
Matthew:
Aha, I think we just solved that.
Molly:
Okay. Anyway. Okay. Well, you know what? Let's just get on with this.
Matthew:
Let's just try and get on with this.
Molly:
Okay. So, I think that, that was how I first learned about quince. And then, I remember when my first book came out, my editor, I think I was on book tour in New York. I think this was when this happened. My editor took me out to dinner. She took me out to a fancy dinner. We went to Blue Hill.
Matthew:
Oh, nice.
Molly:
This was like a decade ago, at least. And I remember for dessert, she ordered something that involved this perfectly cubed quince. Anyway, I was so intimidated by her. She was a quite intimidating sort of a patrician figure. So, I think of quince as this sophisticated food.
Matthew:
Oh, for sure.
Molly:
Which is why you've never had it, Matthew.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah. This makes sense now.
Molly:
Yeah. Okay. But let's get on with it. Let's get onto what this is. And while I'm talking about what it is, I'm going to keep thinking in the back of my mind about how to describe the fragrance more accurately.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
All right. So, quince is related to apples and pears. It's in the family Rosaceae. Did I say that right?
Matthew:
Rosaceae.
Molly:
Rosaceae. Really?
Matthew:
Yeah.
Molly:
Oh, that's not as fun as what I said.
Matthew:
I know. I mean, but rosacea is a skin rash, right?
Molly:
That's true. In fact, I was diagnosed with rosacea once, but I never treated it and now I don't have rosacea.
Matthew:
So, it resolved on its own?
Molly:
Yeah.
Matthew:
Okay. But now, you have a fruit in the rose family. That's a big family.
Molly:
It is a really big family. Because yeah, rose plants are in it as well, right? Like the actual flowering rose.
Matthew:
Yes. And pears, apples. I want to say peaches and plums also?
Molly:
Really? But they have pits.
Matthew:
Yeah. It includes many edible fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, loquats, strawberries, and almonds.
Molly:
Oh, this is fascinating.
Matthew:
Really big family.
Molly:
Wow, that's cool. Okay. Well, quince is the only member of its genus within this family, which is Cydonia.
Matthew:
Do you know the song... I'm going to interrupt with a very important thing again. Do you know the song Knights of Cydonia by Muse?
Molly:
No. Is this real?
Matthew:
This is real, and it's a catchy song and I don't know what Cydonia means. I thought it was just like a cool-sounding word they made up, but maybe it's quince-related.
Molly:
I think they're really into quince.
Matthew:
I think so.
Molly:
Okay. Well, anyway.
Matthew:
Not enough quince rock.
Molly:
There is not enough. Is there much apple rock though?
Matthew:
Oh, I'm going to be... Well, I mean, there was Apple Records, the Beatles label.
Molly:
Oh, that's true.
Matthew:
So, yes. I'm going to try and think of a song with apples in it before the end of the show.
Molly:
Oh, there's Fiona Apple.
Matthew:
There's Fiona Apple. That's apple rock.
Molly:
That's true. Okay. Anyway, so quince is a deciduous tree, and it bears a pome fruit.
Matthew:
There's Chris Martin of Coldplay's daughter, Apple.
Molly:
So, a pome is a fruit. I picture, I always think of an apple when I think of a pome. Well, for one thing, pomme in French is apple.
Matthew:
Oh, sure.
Molly:
But anyway, it's got these seeds that have a special type of... It's like carapace? No.
Matthew:
Like a lobster has?
Molly:
Yeah. Apples and quinces have a carapace.
Matthew:
Yeah, little-known fact, lobsters also in the Rosaceae family.
Molly:
Okay. Anyway, so this fruit is green, and it's covered with this fine, downy hair, like this whitish hair, when it's immature.
Matthew:
Oh. So, it's like a pear that thinks it's a peach.
Molly:
Kind of. Kind of, but the hair is even more noticeable somehow than peach fuzz. If you're walking down the street...
Matthew:
Oh, I don't like that.
Molly:
So, we have, you will notice that there are quinces in Seattle. If you walk around and you look at fruiting trees, and you see one that looks like...
Matthew:
Really?
Molly:
Yes.
Matthew:
Wow. No, I didn't know this at all.
Molly:
Yes, absolutely. You will notice it. But it looks sort of like an apple, sort of like a pear, but it is covered in white fuzz.
Matthew:
I can't believe I never noticed this. It sounds striking and disturbing.
Molly:
Most of the fuzz rubs off before maturity.
Matthew:
Oh, I've been there.
Molly:
As the fruit changes to a bright, golden yellow color, and kind of like apples, well, and very much like apples, the seeds are toxic if they're eaten in large quantities. And the reason that I actually often noticed quince trees in Seattle is that they're frequently grown for their pink blossoms, which is kind of beautiful, like salmon pink, often.
Matthew:
Okay. Now, I'm going to look up what a quince tree looks like and try and spot one in my neighborhood.
Molly:
Yeah. So, the modern name... This is an old fruit, all right?
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
The modern name originated in the 1300s as the plural of quoyn, which came from Old French, which came from Latin, which came from Greek.
Matthew:
Okay. That sounds like what a linguist would say if they didn't know the answer to something.
Molly:
Well, Matthew, don't put such a fine point on it.
Matthew:
Yeah. It's from the 14th century, it came from the Latin, from the Old German, from the Greek, from the Indo-European, from...
Molly:
The plant is native to Western Asia. So, like Azerbaijan, Turkey, Northern Iran, etc. And in fact, actually, Turkey is the world's largest producer of quince. China's right up there too. But anyway, it's been grown as far back as 2000 BC, in this region, in Mesopotamia.
Matthew:
We're going to get to how you eat these at some point, right?
Molly:
Yeah, we're going to get there.
Matthew:
Okay, that's fine. No rush.
Molly:
We're going to get there. But anyway, what I find interesting about it is that... It's interesting to me that at least in, I think in mainstream American cooking, the quince is pretty rare. It's kind of a rarefied thing you buy at the farmers market, right?
Matthew:
Yeah. I think it's on par with gooseberries.
Molly:
Yes. But it thrives in tons of climates. It can be grown all the way from Afghanistan into colder regions, like Scotland, etc., etc. So, it's kind of weird to me that it hasn't taken off more.
Matthew:
You know what I think that, there's this analogous too maybe in my own diet and cooking. It's not a perfect analogy by any means, because Mexican cuisine has had a much greater effect on American cuisine than Spanish and Western Asia has, but tomatillos.
Molly:
Yes.
Matthew:
I buy tomatillos all the time. I cook with tomatillos all the time. It's one of my favorite things. And I think probably, many of our listeners have never bought a tomatillo, have maybe never consciously eaten a tomatillo, but, or didn't know that that's what's in a green salsa and would be like, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Molly:
I wonder if the issue is that both of these fruits, the tomatillo and the quince pretty much need to be cooked before you can-
Matthew:
True.
Molly:
Whereas-
Matthew:
You can make a raw tomatillo salsa, but it's not as good as a roasted tomatillo salsa, in my opinion.
Molly:
Yeah. No, I mean, I think of it as something that you want to cook. So, I wonder if, by and large, we think of fruit as this thing that you eat raw, out of hand.
Matthew:
Yeah.
Molly:
So, I don't know. But I mean, quince certainly, I think, is prized by dessert, pastry chefs, etc. It is so fragrant and so special.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
Let's get down to it, Matthew.
Matthew:
Let's do.
Molly:
Okay. So, the season for these things is short. It's fall. Okay? And apparently in warm climates, these things get soft enough to be edible right off the tree, but not around here, not in any place I've ever seen them. So, you generally buy them, if you see them at the farmers market, or maybe you have a really great grocery store that has some quince, you will probably notice a range of-
Matthew:
I'm going to ask for the show lord to add quince to our next QFC grocery order, see how that goes.
Molly:
Do it. You'll notice that they range in color from green to more like bright yellow. The brightest yellow is going to be the most ripe. You'll also notice they're crazy fragrant. I have been out of the habit of going to the farmers market for years, and instead have been doing CSA and things like that. But I remember times when I've just bought one or two quinces at the farmers market, just to put it in the middle of the kitchen table and smell it.
Matthew:
Oh.
Molly:
They're that fragrant.
Matthew:
So, like a still life, but not painted.
Molly:
In fact, it looks like it should be in a still life because...
Matthew:
Yeah. I know what you mean.
Molly:
So, it's kind of the shape of a pear, but kind of more plump than that, the way an apple is. And the bottom of it, the blossom end, right, usually has kind of bumps to it. Do you know what I mean? Kind of looks like it should stand on those bumps.
Matthew:
Would you say it's shaped more like a comice pear than a Bartlett pear?
Molly:
Yes, I would.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
I absolutely would.
Matthew:
So proud of myself right now.
Molly:
Way to go. Anyway, the smell is like, I can't even say enough. They smell so good. But here's the deal. When you're done sniffing it, you want to peel it. You want to peel it.
Matthew:
Once you're done sniffing it, I like that.
Molly:
And then you'll want to cook it. All right?
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
So, what I have done is mostly either poach them. There are a lot of recipes out there for poached quince.
Matthew:
That makes sense, I think.
Molly:
Or you can kind of bake them, again with some liquid. They are so incredibly dense. When you cut into it, it's like the flesh looks like an apple, but getting a knife through it is much more... You'll find much more resistance than an apple. They're hard and dense.
Matthew:
Can we go back to something real quick? You said, you mentioned that the season is short, but I don't know if I caught what the season is.
Molly:
Oh, it's fall.
Matthew:
Fall, okay.
Molly:
Yeah.
Matthew:
Oh, so we're coming into quince season now.
Molly:
I mean, it might be like late summer. I'm actually not sure. It's kind of like, I think of apples. Truly, most apples are harvested far before we eat them, right?
Matthew:
Right.
Molly:
But quince, I don't think is a storage fruit, like apple.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
Will you look it up?
Matthew:
I might go down to the farmers market on Sunday and see if I can follow my nose to the quince section.
Molly:
Will you just look up really quick, quince, season for quince or...
Matthew:
Season, season for quince. It's from...
Molly:
It's my new book.
Matthew:
Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Molly:
Or look it up on the Seattle farmers market website.
Matthew:
I'm sorry, you did not mention that the scientific name is Cydonia oblonga.
Molly:
Oh, I think I didn't care.
Matthew:
That upsets me. Because we count on you to care about funny scientific names.
Molly:
Yeah, whatever.
Matthew:
Seek them out at your locals farmer market from around the end of October when the quince season begins.
Molly:
Yes. Here we go, guys. So, this episode is airing on October 15th, so.
Matthew:
This may be our timeliest episode ever. Normally would be like, okay, it's December 28th and you missed quince season, but here we are.
Molly:
Well, like, yeah, I think of going to the farmers market, and it's kind of cold outside, and coming back with some quince that makes my house smell like I've been baking something delicious, but you don't even have to bake anything to smell it.
Matthew:
Maybe you're wearing a couple of sweaters.
Molly:
Yes. Probably wearing a couple of sweaters. That's what's making me smell so nice. Anyway, okay. No, but what I was going to say is, so here's something that's really cool about quince is that when you cook it with sugar, the flesh of the fruit turns reddish, like a kind of a rosy kind of blush color.
Matthew:
Oh.
Molly:
So, it's very, very pretty. The flesh is white when you cut into it. But as it cooks with sugar, kind of like how apple turns sort of an amber color or kind of a not unattractive-
Matthew:
Yeah, amber is the color of their energy.
Molly:
What's that from?
Matthew:
It's a 311 song, I think.
Molly:
Okay. Anyway, Matthew, but here's another interesting thing. So, they're really high in pectin, so a lot of people use them for jams and jellies and marmalades. And the term marmalade originally referred to quince jam, because it derives from the word marmelo or marmelo, the Portuguese word for quince.
Matthew:
Oh. So, it's like marmelo in Portuguese and membrillo in Spanish.
Molly:
It seems that way. Yes.
Matthew:
It's funny, although not very funny that the word quince is like a false cognate of a Spanish word, but that the Spanish word for quince is completely different. Because quince is 15 in Spanish.
Molly:
Oh, yeah, that is-
Matthew:
Spelled exactly that way.
Molly:
Huh. Interesting.
Matthew:
Yep.
Molly:
So, this is the fifteenth-
Matthew:
But again, not very interesting.
Molly:
Nope, not very interesting.
Matthew:
It's the fifteenth fruit. If we were quince smugglers and we needed to refer to the quinces that we were, our quinces contraband, we would just write 15 and know what we meant.
Molly:
Yes, yes.
Matthew:
Yes. God, I want to be a spy.
Molly:
Didn't you do this as a kid or a middle-schooler or something, like make up-
Matthew:
Yes, as a kid, I was a spy. I teamed up with Dabney Coleman.
Molly:
No, I used to pretend I was Harriet the Spy. I've talked about this on the show, the way that we would spy on the neighbor lady?
Matthew:
Oh, yeah. You should not do that.
Molly:
No, you shouldn't do it.
Matthew:
But I totally get it. I was really into codes. I liked books about codes and I would make ciphers and stuff.
Molly:
I have done that a little bit with June. I don't think I did it when I was a kid. When I was a kid instead, a friend and I had an elaborate code language, for referring to certain people, like boys that we had crushes on, or we had specific names for our parents that were in code.
Matthew:
Oh, I love this.
Molly:
And we would write entire stories, like funny stories, like-
Matthew:
Do you remember any of the code words?
Molly:
I remember that we referred to my dad as overcoat, because...
Matthew:
No, I don't think you even need to explain. It's perfect.
Molly:
Let's see. God, we had different code names for-
Matthew:
Overcoat is on the move. Quick.
Molly:
We had different code names for every boy we liked, and I am struggling... There were so many of them like...
Matthew:
Of course.
Molly:
I mean, just the crushes in middle school just proliferated exponentially.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah. No, no, I totally remember in middle school, I liked every girl, basically.
Molly:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I liked all the boys and... Oh, I do remember one. So, I think I've talked before on this podcast about how I had a crush on a guy named Chris Stakem.
Matthew:
Oh, yes. You've definitely mentioned that.
Molly:
Yeah. He was a year above me. I specifically had a crush on him in sixth grade. This was 30 years ago. Okay?
Matthew:
Oh, God.
Molly:
Oh, my God. Okay. So, he was in seventh grade. And I remember we referred to him as Well Done. Get it?
Matthew:
Because of steak?
Molly:
Stakem.
Matthew:
Yeah.
Molly:
Get it? Well done.
Matthew:
Well done, Molly.
Molly:
Thank you. Thanks. No, we had other ones because... So, my friend, Jen, who I used to do this with, yeah, she went to a different school and she had all these crushes at her school, but I knew the names of them, because I had seen them all in the yearbook.
Matthew:
Sure.
Molly:
God, I can't remember.
Matthew:
Did you ever have walkie-talkies as a kid?
Molly:
No.
Matthew:
I had some shitty toy store walkie-talkies that never worked well, but I wanted the kind where your friend could be across the street at their own house and walkie-talkieing you.
Molly:
Yeah, we have some walkie-talkies like that for June and-
Matthew:
Oh.
Molly:
Well, they look like shitty toy store walkie-talkies but she can actually get a quarter-mile away.
Matthew:
Oh, I imagine the transmitter receiver, the transceiver technology must've improved enormously since the '80s.
Molly:
Yes.
Matthew:
Yeah. So, I know, but that didn't occur to me until just now that toy store walkie-talkies are probably pretty damn good at this point.
Molly:
Yeah. When she was maybe six, we started letting her walk to my mom's house alone, which is like a block away. And then I think sometime in the last year, we let her try out walking to... There's an entrance down to like a beach in our, maybe like a quarter-mile from our house, and we have let her walk down to the beach with the walkie-talkie.
Matthew:
Nice.
Molly:
And she has been able to talk to us from the gate down to the beach.
Matthew:
That is so cool.
Molly:
Pretty cool, right? I mean, it is pretty awesome to be eight years old in 2020.
Matthew:
Do you use walkie-talkie lingo, like over and 10-4 and Roger and stuff?
Molly:
We're not there yet because she still struggles to be able to remember-
Matthew:
Press. Press the thing.
Molly:
That she has to hold the button down while she's talking.
Matthew:
Yes, that was so hard as a young kid.
Molly:
Oh, my gosh.
Matthew:
The coordination there was almost impossible. I remember I couldn't do this and I remember Iris couldn't do it.
Molly:
Yeah. No, pretty much talking to June on the walkie-talkie is like... It's like that.
Matthew:
Oh, wow. Then, she's just practicing for later, when she is going to say, "Sorry, you're breaking up. I'm going into the tunnel. Sorry. Talk to you later. I'm going to go do terrible things."
Molly:
Yeah. Just like that. Anyway. Okay. But hold on, Matthew, so you've never cooked with quinces?
Matthew:
Nope.
Molly:
Okay. All right. Well, you can also, okay, so... Hold on. I'm not done, Matthew.
Matthew:
No, no, no.
Molly:
Poached quince is seriously delicious. It takes longer to cook than you can possibly imagine. It's just-
Matthew:
Okay. So, I'm going to guess, based on that, three days.
Molly:
No, nothing like that.
Matthew:
Two hours.
Molly:
I can't remember. I think that David Lebovitz has a recipe for poached quince. Do you want to look it up?
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
See how long it cooks. As I recall, it's one of those kind of recipes where he has you cut a piece of parchment to fit inside the sauce pan, and cover the surface of the liquid, the poaching liquid.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah.
Molly:
Why do people have you do that? Minimize evaporation?
Matthew:
Yeah.
Molly:
So, why not just put a lid on it?
Matthew:
Yeah, it's to minimize evaporation. I don't really know what the difference between that and a lid. This is something that is also often called for in Japanese recipes. It's a substitute for a drop lid. That's a wooden lid that would go directly on the surface of the food. But yeah, I don't know. This is a job for a food scientist.
Molly:
That's not what we are.
Matthew:
I've got David Lebovitz's rosy poached quince.
Molly:
There we go.
Matthew:
Please hold for the cooking time. Oh, wow, there's a picture of a quince. It does look like a chubby pear.
Molly:
Yeah. Aren't they so cute?
Matthew:
Yeah. Simmer the quinces for at least an hour.
Molly:
Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew:
I mean, three days is at least an hour.
Molly:
Yeah. The three days was a great guess. So, yeah, I've made that recipe. We can link to it. David Lebovitz's rosy poached quince. I think I've also made a Tarte Tatin that used quince.
Matthew:
Oh, that makes sense. I don't think I've made a Tarte Tatin ever, but I've eaten it.
Molly:
Making an apple Tarte Tatin is quite easy, if you're comfortable making a caramel.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah.
Molly:
It's a caramel that's got butter in it. So, it's also more forgiving than just a sugar caramel or a sugar and water caramel.
Matthew:
I think we did a caramel episode. I am comfortable doing just a pure sugar caramel. It's like, it's one of the few difficult kitchen things that I feel like I can handle.
Molly:
You are awesome. Well, I think that you should try a Tarte Tatin because it is way simpler than that, and I make mine... I sound like I do this all the time, but I've probably made a Tarte Tatin a dozen times. And I've used store-bought puff pastry for it. I really liked that.
Matthew:
Oh, sure.
Molly:
I like that a lot.
Matthew:
Why don't you bring one over when you come to pick up your paycheck on the first?
Molly:
Probably not.
Matthew:
Okay.
Molly:
Okay.
Matthew:
Are you going to talk about some of this quince cultural trivia?
Molly:
I am.
Matthew:
Okay, good.
Molly:
So, all right. So, the book of Genesis does not name the specific type of fruit that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But some-
Matthew:
But it's probably a tomatillo.
Molly:
It's probably a tomatillo. Some ancient texts suggest that it might've been a quince.
Matthew:
Yeah. Okay.
Molly:
Yeah, whatever.
Matthew:
I mean, if it's as fragrant as you claim, then it might, it would draw them from far away and it would be hard to ignore.
Molly:
It would also be really hard to bite into though. I mean, unless it was, maybe it was very warm in the garden of Eden. Probably was, they were naked. So, it had to have been quite warm.
Matthew:
And that definitely would have warmed things up.
Molly:
And maybe the fruit became fully ripe and soft on the tree, and so...
Matthew:
Yeah, it did.
Molly:
Yeah. All right. Okay. So, ancient Greek poets, for example, Aristophanes, used quinces as a mildly ribald term for teenage breasts.
Matthew:
Okay. Those goofballs.
Molly:
Oh, so silly. Okay. And then some... Matthew, I think you're maybe more familiar with the Simpsons than me. Do you want to read this one?
Matthew:
In the Simpsons episode, Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)... I do kind of remember that episode. I know I've seen it. Homer sends Mr. Burns a box of chocolates with a family photo at the bottom. Burns and Smithers eschew the sour quince log, leaving Homer's face obscured in the photo.
Molly:
Harsh.
Matthew:
Yes.
Molly:
Wow. I feel like there's got to be some sort of, I feel like there should be some sort of slang that's based on that.
Matthew:
Oh, like you got quinced out.
Molly:
Yeah, you got quinced out, or you got quince logged.
Matthew:
Yep. Or like I'm going to quince. I'm just going to quince over this issue.
Molly:
Yes, exactly.
Matthew:
Oh, yeah.
Molly:
Just like that.
Matthew:
There's so many quince-related expressions that have made their way into English. Where do we even begin?
Molly:
I wonder where-
Matthew:
Calling it quince, for example.
Molly:
I wonder where the name Quincy came from.
Matthew:
Oh, like Quincy MD.
Molly:
Like Quincy Jones, John Quincy Adams.
Matthew:
All MDs.
Molly:
Yep. There have got to be some other-
Matthew:
Quincy Jones, musical doctor.
Molly:
Yes. There have got to be some other Quincys out there.
Matthew:
Yeah, I think there probably are. I can't think of any others either, but yeah. Do you think it is related to the fruit?
Molly:
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. I'm glad we got to the bottom of that. This has been such a-
Matthew:
It's like, if you look it up in a What Does My Name Mean? baby name dictionary, it'll just say like, "a very fragrant person."
Molly:
Yes, exactly. Exactly. Did you know that Molly, apparently in Hebrew or something, means bitter?
Matthew:
Every time I hear what does your name mean definition, it always sounds like bullshit to me.
Molly:
It does to me too.
Matthew:
I know some of these do have real, real meanings in some language, but the way it's always phrased, with such conviction, like in a baby name book, just sounds like, "Well, we had to come up with a meaning for all of these names, probably some of which really don't have meanings, and we're just going to go for it."
Molly:
I wonder what Matthew means.
Matthew:
So, I was told that it means gift from God, but who knows?
Molly:
That is how I think of you.
Matthew:
Yeah, and I think of you as...
Molly:
Bitter.
Matthew:
Great. Molly means great. Really good. It means really good cohost.
Molly:
Okay. All right.
Matthew:
It's from the Serbo-Croatian for queen of podcast.
Molly:
Wow. Okay. I'll take it. I will take it. Not going to second-guess this. Nope.
Matthew:
I feel like if we could make a fake baby name dictionary and sell it at like Urban Outfitters or like the Hudson News or something...
Molly:
Let's do it.
Matthew:
Really, really lowest-common-denominator humor so we wouldn't have to work too hard on it.
Molly:
This sounds like a really fun way to stay busy during winter 2020.
Matthew:
Yep. Okay. Let's get to work on this.
Molly:
All right. Well, we got to let our agent know.
Matthew:
Okay, that's true.
Molly:
We've got this super hot book coming down the pike.
Matthew:
That's right, I forgot. I do technically still have a literary agent.
Molly:
You do. You do. Yep. Yep.
Matthew:
Great. I'll make use of that.
Molly:
Okay.
Matthew:
All right. So, you can find us online at spilledmilkpodcast.com. I believe we're deleting our Facebook presence.
Molly:
We are, we are. So long, Facebook. You're the worst.
Matthew:
Yep. Our producer is Abby Cerquitella. Please rate and review the show wherever you get it. Thank you so much to everyone who subscribed during our recent pledge drive. It's going great. I think, I'm not sure as of now, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to hit the point where Molly is going to have to teach me to drive. And like...
Molly:
I love that if someone hasn't listened to the pledge drive episode and they just hear this out of context, they're going to be like, "Wow. So, Matthew's going to have to be able to drive to tape the show from now on?"
Matthew:
That's right. From now on, I'm taping the show in... I mean, I don't have a car, so it'll be in your car.
Molly:
Yeah. I can't wait to teach you to drive in my car.
Matthew:
Yeah. Aren't you worried about what I might do to your car?
Molly:
I'm not. I mean, you've driven before. You just haven't driven for like almost a decade. It's fine.
Matthew:
Yeah, I'm probably okay.
Molly:
Yeah. And anyway, we need to find a really big parking lot.
Matthew:
We do.
Molly:
I learned to drive in a church parking lot in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There's a pretty big parking lot by me, a church parking lot.
Matthew:
Okay. Let's do it. I think I learned to drive like, at least in part in... When would this have been? Maybe the Jewish community center parking lot in Southwest Portland. That definitely feels familiar. And that was a big parking lot.
Molly:
Surely we can find a big parking lot between our two residences, so you don't have to schlep all the way over to my house.
Matthew:
Well, I mean, yeah. Who knows when we'll be able to do this anyway?
Molly:
Oh, that's right. We have to be in a car together. Shoot.
Matthew:
Yeah.
Molly:
God. Okay. Fine.
Matthew:
All right. So, thank you for listening to Spilled Milk.
Molly:
The show that's so fragrant, you can smell us from the next room.
Matthew:
Well, wait, wait. Is the show playing in the next room, and you can't hear us necessarily, but you can smell us?
Molly:
Yes.
Matthew:
Okay. I'll buy that.
Molly:
We're like quince. I mean, you can't hear quince in the next room, but you might be able to smell it.
Matthew:
All right. I'm Quincy.
Molly:
I'm... I'm Quincy.
Molly:
Yo.
Matthew:
Yo, yo.
Molly:
Yo.
Matthew:
Ah...