Peeled apple quarters turned soft pink, with a few strawberries, in a footed glass bowl of clear pink juice, with a spoon beside it on a white enamel table. — Apples cooked pink with strawberries, the synthetic quince.

Synthetic Quince (1915)

Name: Synthetic Quince
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 lb rhubarb stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces; 5 cups water; 1/4 cup sugar; 4 medium apples (about 1 1/2 lb); 1 cup strawberries, hulled

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Synthetic quince, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s kitchen accident from The Suffrage Cook Book (1915): quartered apples stewed in pink rhubarb juice with strawberries.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 25, 2026

Recipe makes: 6 servings
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 30 min
Total: 45 min

The rhubarb simmers about 10 minutes for its juice, the apples stew 10 to 15 minutes in it, and the strawberries need only the last 2 or 3.

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Apples cooked pink with strawberries, the synthetic quince.

The story behind the recipe

Synthetic Quince is apples stewed in rhubarb juice until they pass for quince. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was honest about where hers came from when she gave it to The Suffrage Cook Book in 1915. Her heading calls it “An Accidental Discovery,” and her whole recipe is the story of one pot of rhubarb with too much water in it.

A writer’s leftovers

From 1909 to 1916 she wrote and edited a monthly magazine, The Forerunner, entirely on her own, and in 1915 it was running her utopian novel Herland. Her ideal house had no kitchen at all: cooking, like child care, was to be done by trained professionals in community kitchens, so that women could earn their own living. A cookbook was an odd place to find her, and what she sent it was a kitchen accident.

The leftovers did the cooking. About a quart of pink rhubarb juice was left over, and she stewed quartered apples in it, then added “a saucerful of strawberries—also ‘left over.’” The result, she wrote, “looked and tasted exactly like quince, except that the apple was a little softer.” The book prints her name as “Charlotte Perkin Gilman.”

Making it today

Gilman never says whether she peeled the apples; we peel and core them so they take up the color evenly. We add a little sugar to the rhubarb water, which Gilman doesn’t mention, and a firm, tart apple that holds its shape is our choice. Use only the rhubarb stalks: the leaves are poisonous.

What Did the Suffragists Cook? sets her kitchen joke beside her case, in Women and Economics, for handing cooking to trained experts. Serve it with Catt’s Pain d’Oeufs (1915) for two desserts from the same book.

Printed recipe headed Synthetic Quince, An Accidental Discovery: apples stewed in leftover rhubarb juice with strawberries, signed Charlotte Perkin Gilman — *Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Synthetic Quince in* The Suffrage Cook Book *(Pittsburgh, 1915), p. 200.*

I put too much water with my rhubarb and had a whole dishful of beautiful pink juice left over, about a quart. In this I cooked some apples, quartered, and stewed till soft, and just as an experiment added a saucerful of strawberries—also “left over.”
The result, being served, looked and tasted exactly like quince, except that the apple was a little softer.
CHARLOTTE PERKIN GILMAN.

Mrs. L. O. Klebercomp., The Suffrage Cook Book (Pittsburgh: The Equal Franchise Federation of Western Pennsylvania, 1915), p. 200, signed Charlotte Perkin Gilman

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Ingredients

For 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 6 servings.

Rhubarb stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces1 lb
Water5 cups
Sugar1/4 cup
Medium apples4Author measures: about 1 1/2 lb.
Strawberries, hulled1 cup

Ingredients as written here

1 lb rhubarb stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
5 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
4 medium apples (about 1 1/2 lb)
1 cup strawberries, hulled

Equipment

Large saucepan
Sieve set over a bowl
Liquid measuring cup
Slotted spoon

Instructions

Put the rhubarb, water and sugar in the saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rhubarb has fallen apart and the water is pink.
Pour it through the sieve into the bowl, pressing lightly on the rhubarb. Measure the juice: you need about four-fifths of the water you started with. Top it up with water if there is less. Keep the rhubarb pulp for another use.
Peel and core the apples and cut each into quarters.
Return the juice to the saucepan, bring it back to a simmer, and add the apples. Simmer gently, turning them once, for 10 to 15 minutes, until a knife slides in easily but they still hold their shape.
Add the strawberries, halving any large ones, and simmer 2 to 3 minutes more, just until they soften.
Lift the fruit into a serving dish with the slotted spoon and pour over as much of the pink juice as you like. Serve warm or cold.

Nutrition

120calories per serving

Recipe makes: 6 servings
Servings: 6

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for rhubarb, apples, strawberries and sugar.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Keep the apples in a single layer, or nearly, so they cook evenly; use a wider pan for a double batch.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Skip rhubarb stalks that were frozen on the plant and have gone limp. Taste the juice before adding the apples and stir in more sugar if it is very sour. Covered and refrigerated, the fruit keeps in its juice for 3 days and takes on more color as it stands.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.