Quince jelly recipe

The quince. The result of a drunken fumbling between a pear and an apple.

Someone I know has a quince tree, but really does not know what to do with them. She gave me a bagfull of quinces to use at my pleasure.

The quince is an odd thing- rock hard, covered in fluff and smelling of apples. I decided to do some quince jelly as it looks beautiful, and was eager to know how one gets a ruby-red jelly from a biege sludge. As it was, it was dead easy. The quince is so rammed with pectin that I believe it would be impossible not to make a set jelly.

Here is the recipe, satisfying in that one does not need a degree in chemical engineering to understand it. You need:

Quinces
Granulated sugar
Juice of one lemon

Chop the quinces into chunks. Cover with water, add the lemon juice and boil the fruit, lid on, until it is very soft. This can take hours. When the fruit falls to pieces, mash the fruit with a potato masher. Strain the resulting mush through a jelly bag or a muslin cloth.

Measure the liquid. Using a pound of sugar per pint of juice, heat the juice and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. (Retain the fruit mush to make quince cheese.) Bring to the boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Behold the colour change from orange to red. After this, test the jelly to see if it has reached setting point. Dot a bit of jelly on a chilled plate and leave for a minute. Nudge the jelly with your finger. If it wrinkles, it's ready. It not, boil for 3 more minutes. Repeat this process until it's set.

Once the set point is reaches, pour into sterilised, hot jars, cover with a wax disk and seal.

The resulting jelly is beautiful and tastes fruity, but perfumed, like it has a hint of rose water. It's quite hard to describe, so have a go.