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Pear Vinegar

The water in which pears have been boiled for preserves may be used for vinegar or vinegar may be made from crushed pears as from apples at cider-making time. Or pears may be cut, boiled, and crushed and the resulting liquor sweetened with molasses and allowed to ferment. CHAPTER III THE QUINCE (Cydonia cydonia: Malacee) THE Quince, or Cydonia, is a near relative of the apple and pear, sometimes in form resembling one, sometimes the other, according to variety. Its history is as fragrant as the fruit itself, which among the ancient Greeks was typical of happiness and love, and bears about it a still more ancient suggestion, through the old Hebrew writers: that it was the forbidden fruit. And surely no fruit was ever more tempting in perfume; more disappointing in reality before cookery creates chemical change. (The Japanese Quince [Cydonia Japonica] is not a general cooking fruit.) The quince is native to Greece and is now known almost as widely as the apple and pear. Its name was bestowed upon it, it is said, in the days when flourished the ancient city of Cydonia in Crete.

As an adjunct to or basis of preserves, and as a cordial or unfermented drink, made as is cider, the quince is a food success and the mucilage which surrounds its seeds is considered of value in several ways, one of its uses being as a cure for sore throat, or applied, externally, to other irritated surfaces.