A few hundred years ago, if you wanted your palace to smell glorious throughout winter, you hung clove-scented pomanders in the closets and bunches of lavender with the linen. But you also stored baskets of quinces in every room, because quinces send out the most extraordinary scent as they slowly ripen throughout winter — a combination of flowers and pineapple and something that is essentially, wonderfully, its own.

Quinces grow in all but tropical climates. There are at least 14 varieties available in Australia, though you may have to hunt them out. Champion and Smyrna are the only commercially grown quinces in Australia, so few people know just how different quince varieties can look or taste, from neat oval ones to knobbly giants, firm-fleshed ones that need hours of slow cooking or others that can be eaten like a rather hard, crisp apple.

Some ripen early, about February. Others are late ripeners. Japanese quinces, or Japonicas, are quinces, too, and give a stunning spring flower display into the bargain. Their fruit are often a bit small and knobbly for eating raw or baked, but they do make great jelly.

Quinces are simple to grow and don’t need pruning or even feeding as long as your soil is reasonably fertile. They fruit best, though, when fed in spring and are mulched and watered well. The spring flowers are pretty, too — clusters of pink or white. In autumn the leaves turn deep yellow, then drop, leaving you with great, gorgeous, globulous fruit hanging from bare branches. Irresistible.

They are also irresistible to birds, fruit bats and possums. I tie up about one-third of our crop in calico bird bags to keep them for us alone or cover the fruit in bags made from old stockings. This does spoil the look slightly, but it also means we can have our quinces and also share them with the other inhabitants of our garden, and the bird bags can be used year after year, looking slightly grottier each year, but still effective. You know you’ve grown something when you pick a quince.

Quinces need full sun. They’ll grow in dappled light, but won’t fruit as well as they do in a sunny spot. They’ll tolerate almost any soil — cold heavy soils and/or light dry ones — and will fruit even in cool-wintered subtropical areas.

If you’re a quince novice it can be hard to know when the fruit is ripe. Ripe fruit is yellow, not green, and smells wonderfully fruity when you sniff it close up. Fruit fall is a sign that either the fruit is ripe or the tree is moisture-stressed. Hopefully, the label will tell you when your quince variety is ripe, but otherwise look at the fruit once a week from autumn onwards to see when it changes from green to yellow.

Quinces picked too early rot before they ripen, but once they are ready you can store them for months in a cool, dark spot in the house — not near the heater. Don’t store them near potatoes, either, or you may find you have quince-flavoured spuds.

If you want to try raw quince, slice ripe ones very, very thinly, dip in lemon juice so they don’t discolour, and eat with cheese or with slices of extra-sweet kiwifruit or apples. They can also be added thinly sliced or chopped to fruit salad for a bit of crunch, as long as they are marinated for at least four hours in the sweet syrup of other fruits.

However, traditionally quinces are cooked and for good reason. Ruby-red quince jelly is one of the world’s great jams; quince cheese is a mediaeval luxury that is still one of the great treats today; and quince sauce does magic things to vanilla icecream or a plain butter cake. Baked quinces can be either sweet or savoury. However you serve them, quinces are luxury.

Note: quinces change colour from pale green or cream to pink to dark red as they are cooked. The peel and cores will help give them a richer colour (and the extra pectin in them certainly helps with setting your jelly), but throw them out — or give them to the chooks — after cooking.

Recipes

Quince jelly
1 kilo quinces
white sugar
Water
Slice but don’t core or peel quinces. Cover with water. Simmer till soft. Add more water only if it’s boiling dry. Strain — I push mine through a strainer, then pour that juice through a clean old stocking. The more finely you strain out the pulp, the clearer your jelly will be. For every cup of juice add 1 cup of sugar. Simmer, stirring often, till a little dabbed on a cold saucer turns into jelly. Pour into clean jars at once and seal.

Quince paste
Keep boiling the jelly for another half hour or so till a little sets firmly on a saucer. Pour onto a greased tray. When set cut into squares. Serve with cheese or eat with nuts, especially walnuts or pistachios.

Baked or simmered quinces
Scrub the fluff off the quinces. Peel and core. Tie the peel and core in muslin or other cloth (even old (clean) stockings) so they can be easily removed and place in the pot with the quinces. Cover with water, red or white wine, cider or apple juice. Cook either in the oven or on top of the stove slowly for 2–4 hours till quinces are soft, fragrant and deep red. Now add sugar or honey to taste — if you add it too early the quinces may toughen a bit. You may need to add a little more water as they cook, but the eventual syrup should be thick and rich red. Discard the peel and core. Serve hot or cold.

Apple & quince sauce
3 large quinces, peeled, cored & chopped
½ cup sugar or honey
6 apples
Grated rind of an orange and a lemon
Bottle of cider
Simmer all ingredients till broken down and thick. Bottle and store in a cool place. Throw out if it turns mouldy or ferments.