Gertrude Stein’s (arguably) most famous quote is "a rose is a rose is a rose". It makes you wonder, had she ever met a quince?

I think Shakespeare’s Juliet was closer to the truth when she said, “…a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Quince can be marvelously sweet smelling.

If you are casually acquainted with the fruit, quince may seem more like an apple or a pear. And in fact it is a “pome” fruit just like an apple or pear. Pome fruits are most easily described at a fruit with a “core” or “endocarp”. Apples and pears have cores, so do cotoneaster, hawthorn, loquat, medlar, Pyracantha, quince, rowan, and whitebeam.

Though quince shares other botanical traits with the rest of the pome fruits, the quince’s culinary traits are quite different. In fact it’s culinary traits line up more with the rose (had you not considered rose culinary?).