Quince Jelly

Quince Jelly, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

It seems that every time I do another preserve I say that is the last one of the season well I think this is really it, I'm almost out of jars.

I've never even tasted Quince jelly before but I've thought about making it for years now. My two flowering quince shrubs always have some fruit on them in the fall but this has been an exceptional year for them, evidently they really liked our very wet summer. I always thought that the growing season here must be too short for the fruit to ripen, it turns yellow but stays hard until it falls off the plant. I discovered while looking on the internet for jelly making instruction that the quince fruit never does get soft, so I was good to go.

The process is simple:

1. Cut the fruit in half and remove the core and seeds, I used a tea spoon which worked well.

2. Put the prepared fruit in a heavy bottom pan and add enough water to cover by one inch.

3. Bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer for one hour.

4. Take off the heat and mash, I used a hand held blender.

5. Put the mashed quince in a double layer cheesecloth bag and hang over a bowl or container to catch the liquid. I left mine to drain over night.

6. Measure the liquid and return it to a heavy bottomed pan add slightly less than one cup of sugar for each cup of liquid.

7. Bring to a rolling boil and cook until it reaches the jelly stage. You can determine this stage by chilling a spoon full on a cold (one you've kept in the freezer)plate as soon as one of these tests produces firm jelly remove from the heat and skim off the foam.

8. Add to sterile bottles with sterile lids.

Enjoy the resulting jelly which I find a bit tart but a very nice flavour.