little history of quince
Medieval cooks regarded the quince as the most useful of fruits and spiced it with pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. At medieval courts and banquets, nobles enjoyed quince jelly for dessert: cotignac in France, cotogna in Italy, and carne de membrillo in Spain, all still popular. In Tudor and Stuart times, quince marmalade, wrapped in gold foil, was regarded as an aphrodisiac.
Many suppose that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was a quince. In Greek legend Helen of Troy bribed Paris to award a quince to Aphrodite as the prize in a beauty contest, starting the Trojan War.
-David Karp, Pomologist, aka The Fruit Detective
ancient times
Quince is native to Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Wild plants exist in Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
It has a long history of cultivation in Central Asia, the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, reaching back into ancient times.
In Greek mythology references to ‘golden apples’ were likely quince. The term ‘apple’ was used in antiquity to refer to any fruit, and the familiar large, edible apples, as we know them, are from more recent times. (Source: UC Davis Fruit & Nut Research & Information)