After a couple of weeks savouring the smell of the ripening quinces it was finally time to trial quince jelly. After consulting recipe books from several decades and of varying levels of sophistication I decided on a very simple version of quince jelly. The absolute basic recipe I found simply boiled the sliced quinces in water with sugar but I adapted my apple jelly recipe instead and added a lemon for flavour and to aid the set.

Slicing quinces is no easy task. It took my heavy duty cook's knife to do the deed and even then I had to lean on it heavily. No wonder they say you cannot eat the fruit raw. I put the whole fruit in as I was making jelly. Added enough water to cover and then let them simmer away until soft. I grated the rind and squeezed the lemon to add but then added the rest as well. Once all was softened I strained the mixture through a jelly bag - no easy task as I discovered it had sprung a hole since last used. Improvised by using a folded piece of damp kitchen paper in the base and only juice got through to leave a lovely pink clear liquid.

Left overnight to strain the next day I added sugar at the rate of a pound to a pint of juice and boiled it all up until setting point was reached. Poured the jelly into sterilised jars and sealed them and the resulting ruby jelly looks wonderful. Worth making for the colour alone. A real jewel of a jelly. (An unusual ruby wedding gift perhaps?). We have tasted the sample pot and as someone remarked in the earlier post the jelly is very sweet but would make a great foil to cheese or meat dishes, rather as cranberry jelly enhances turkey I think.

At every stage, mindful of the writer's hat, I took photos and made a note of any snags that arose - don't they always - and although this was a fairly lengthy process I think the effort will prove worthwhile and we will have satisfied our curiosity about this historic fruit.