MEMBRILLO, AN ANCIENT FRUITS OF THE ANDES.

Membrillo (Quince) is an ancient fruit that grows on small trees in a manner quite like apples and pears, but it lacks their immediate edibility and appeal.
The tree grows in rocky slopes and woodland margins and in mild and cold climates. The height of the tree is 5 to 8 meters / 16-26ft and 4 to 6 meters / 13-20ft wide.
Membrillo (Quince) is knobby, ugly and tough fruit, with an irregular shape and often a gray fuzz, especially when the fruit has been picked under ripe. If the fruit is smashed accidentally it turns red in the bruise area. The ripest, nicest quince will have a golden-yellow tone and smooth skin, but even ripe it is an acid-tasting and a astringent hard fruit to eat raw, and with a spongy flesh which is difficult to cut up. The phenolic chemicals in the flesh of the fresh fruit coagulate proteins in the mouth, causing the fruit to taste astringent.
But not everything is negative about the fruit.
The first clue that quince hides is its aroma. If you leave a quince on a sunny windowsill it will slowly release a delicate fragrance of vanilla, citrus, and apple . It is a heady, perfumed scent that is completely at odds with its appearance.
Then, when you peel a quince and hack it up, then cook it, those scents blossom into an indescribably wonderful perfume, and the fruit itself magically turns from yellowed white to a deep rosy pink.
Then, when you stew quince in sugar and a little wine, it becomes not just edible but delicious sweet, delicate, and fragrant.
The quince is popular and commonly used in the mountains of Peru for its high pectin making it ideal for making jams and jellies. Also it is used to make preserves and poached for compotes. It can be added to apple or pear jams, in small quantities, to enhance the flavor and used to make wine, and a sweet paste called 'machacado' that often is paired with cheese as a snack.
The carotenoid molecules that give quince its yellow color break down into compounds, notably those rose-scented ions, that impart the fruit's pungent floral aroma. When cooked for a long time, heat and acidity convert its phenolic compounds into antho-cyanins, so the pulp loses its astringency turning into a pleasant pink.
To make the delicious Purple Corn Drink (Chicha Morada), the fruit is paired with pine apple to make it very tasty.
The 'emoliente,' Peru's popular street vendor's medicinal infusion is made from stewed fruits that includes quince, lemon grass, and clove, that make up the liquid base, then fresh aloe vera extract , flaxseed and lime juice, are added to make it layered, slimy, and thick, assisting our microbiome and healing the gut.