Quince & Lamb Tagine

Name: Quince & Lamb Tagine
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 45 min
Total time: 3 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Moroccan
Ingredients: 1 kg lamb shoulder, cut to 5 cm pieces; 1 onion (about 150 g), grated; 4 cloves garlic (about 15 g), grated; 1 tsp saffron (about 1 g) in 3 tbsp warm water (#120); 1½ tsp ginger; ½ tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp black pepper; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp olive oil (about 25 g); 400 ml water; a fist of cilantro and parsley (about 20 g), tied; 3 quinces (about 700 g), peeled, quartered, cored — kept in water with a lemon squeeze until their moment (their flesh browns fast); The quince's syrup: 250 ml water, 1 tbsp honey (about 20 g), 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbsp butter (about 15 g); 40 g toasted almonds or sesame; the #116 cumin salt, optional, at the sharp table's call

Moroccan · Easy · Serves 4–6

The quince is the autumn sweet tagine's own fruit — its perfume, somewhere between apple and rose, and its firm flesh that holds its shape where the prune dissolves — and this record is the #36 prune tagine's doctrine with the season's rotation: lamb braised savory to silk, the quince simmermed separately in its honey-cinnamon light, and the two married at the table. The master record carries the whole law; this sibling's work is the fruit's own clock and character.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

Ingredients

kept in water with a lemon squeeze until their moment (their flesh browns fast)

- **The #36's laws carried whole:** the lamb's savory braise (no sugar in the pot), the fruit's separate syrup, and the marriage at the end. The quince's own law: peeled and quartered, held in acidulated water — the exposed flesh oxidizes to brown in minutes, and the tagine's gold wants them pale. - **The bridge:** quince is autumn's crop and runs October through winter in good grocers; the #36's prunes or the #41's raisins bridge in the off-season honestly (the doctrine is the master record's own).

Step 1. **The lamb's braise (1 hour 15 minutes at the tremble).** The #36's method: the lamb with the aromatics, saffron water, and spices turned in the warm oil, the water added, the pot covered and trembled (95 °C) until the lamb is fork-silk and the onions dissolved to the sauce. Checkpoint — the #36's own: a centimeter of savory gold, the lamb yielding, the salt one notch past comfort.

Step 2. **The quince's syrup (25 minutes, alongside).** Simmer the drained quince quarters in the water, honey, cinnamon stick, and butter, covered ajar, 20–25 minutes — until the flesh is tender to the knife's tip and translucent at its edges, the syrup lightly gilded — then uncovered 5 minutes to concentrate. The quince holds its shape by nature: the fork's tenderness is the clock, not a collapse. Checkpoint — each quarter: intact, tender, faintly translucent, its perfume — rose-apple, the quince's own unmistakable — risen over the syrup. The taste: gentle-sweet with the cinnamon's warmth, far lighter than the prune's concentration — the quince's register is perfume, not sweetness's weight.

Step 3. **The marriage and the service.** The quince and a spoonful of its syrup folded gently through the lamb's sauce; the rest 10 minutes; the almonds over, and the table's bread or couscous beside. Checkpoint — eating test: the lamb's savory silk against the quince's perfumed, gently sweet tenderness — the fruit's rose-register riding the saffron, the almonds' toast between, and the whole lighter on the tongue than the prune tagine's dark concentration. It should taste like the season's own argument: the autumn's perfume over the winter's warmth. Chef’s Note — the sweet tagine's fruit row — prune (#36, dark and concentrated), quince (this record, perfumed and light), fig (#60, honeyed and seedy), raisin (#41, the festival's own) — is the canon's seasonal calendar, and the choice is the market's month: the doctrine is one, the fruit rotates, and the household's pot follows the year. This record's own vote is the quince's perfume as the row's most elegant seat.

Quince & Lamb Tagine

Prep: 25 minutes, plus 1 hour marinating · Cook: 1 hour 45 minutes · Total: About 3 hours 15 minutes · Serves 4–6

Ingredients

1 kg lamb shoulder, cut to 5 cm pieces
1 onion (about 150 g), grated; 4 cloves garlic (about 15 g), grated
1 tsp saffron (about 1 g) in 3 tbsp warm water (#120); 1½ tsp ginger; ½ tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp black pepper; 1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil (about 25 g); 400 ml water; a fist of cilantro and parsley (about 20 g), tied
3 quinces (about 700 g), peeled, quartered, cored — kept in water with a lemon squeeze until their moment (their flesh browns fast)
The quince's syrup: 250 ml water, 1 tbsp honey (about 20 g), 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbsp butter (about 15 g)
40 g toasted almonds or sesame; the #116 cumin salt, optional, at the sharp table's call

Instructions

**The lamb's braise (1 hour 15 minutes at the tremble).** The #36's method: the lamb with the aromatics, saffron water, and spices turned in the warm oil, the water added, the pot covered and trembled (95 °C) until the lamb is fork-silk and the onions dissolved to the sauce. Checkpoint — the #36's own: a centimeter of savory gold, the lamb yielding, the salt one notch past comfort.
**The quince's syrup (25 minutes, alongside).** Simmer the drained quince quarters in the water, honey, cinnamon stick, and butter, covered ajar, 20–25 minutes — until the flesh is tender to the knife's tip and translucent at its edges, the syrup lightly gilded — then uncovered 5 minutes to concentrate. The quince holds its shape by nature: the fork's tenderness is the clock, not a collapse. Checkpoint — each quarter: intact, tender, faintly translucent, its perfume — rose-apple, the quince's own unmistakable — risen over the syrup. The taste: gentle-sweet with the cinnamon's warmth, far lighter than the prune's concentration — the quince's register is perfume, not sweetness's weight.
**The marriage and the service.** The quince and a spoonful of its syrup folded gently through the lamb's sauce; the rest 10 minutes; the almonds over, and the table's bread or couscous beside. Checkpoint — eating test: the lamb's savory silk against the quince's perfumed, gently sweet tenderness — the fruit's rose-register riding the saffron, the almonds' toast between, and the whole lighter on the tongue than the prune tagine's dark concentration. It should taste like the season's own argument: the autumn's perfume over the winter's warmth.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Quince browned at the peel	Skipped the acidulated bath	Lemon water from the first cut
Quince still firm	Under-simmered	The knife-tip tenderness, not the clock's guess
Marriage one-note	Fruit simmered in the braise	The two-pots law holds for every fruit

Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations

- Keeps 3 days refrigerated (the quince's perfume steeping into the pot); the two pots hold separately a day ahead, the marriage at the reheat. The #36 prune tagine is the master; the #47 is its autumn seat. - Variations: the apple's humble bridge, the #60 fig's honeyed register. The fruit rotates; the doctrine holds.