Tea at Trianon: How to Make French Quince Paste

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, October 18, 2026

How to Make French Quince Paste

From Léonce:

I recently came across some beautiful quinces at the market and brought a few home, thinking it was finally time I tried making pâte de coing, the traditional French quince paste. I’ve always had a fondness for pâtes de fruits, those little fruit confections you find in traditional French chocolate shops. They remind me especially of Christmas when I was little, and the papillotes we would unwrap during the holidays: chocolates and sweets wrapped in colorful, fringed paper, often with a little message tucked inside.
Lately, I’ve also become rather curious about old French pastry books. There is something fascinating about discovering recipes that were once familiar, sometimes even everyday, but that we rarely think to make anymore. Some require an astonishing amount of work; others are surprisingly simple. And every so often, I come across one that makes me wonder why we ever stopped making it. (Read more.)