Bought 10 lbs of quinces, end of harvest, end of leetle
teeny farmers' market. Cleaned & chopped quinces, no peeling!,
cut out icky bits, stew up for an hour or so. Lots of nice seeds
this time. Yield - 2 quarts (give or take some ounces) rilly thick
juice and 6 quarts (yeah a gallon and a half!) of nice puree.
Forgot the vanilla bean.
Saved some seeds in a dish of water for another day or something
and they gelled the water!
Processed three batches of quince butter, recipes follow.
Having raided the stew for its juice made cooking down the butter
very much easier/shorter. Usually less than half hour. BTW-the puree
kept nicely (tightly covered) in the fridge, did not discolor the way
apples would. I learned not to food mill the puree to death or y'all
will get these leetle pieces of seed which aint poisonous, but
look like roach poop or something. Yes, I did go around with a
spoon and pick them all out.
This batch of quince jelly turned out just a teeny bit firmer
maybe than I like it, but tender all the same. Boyo what a flavor
and pretty color. And clear, absolutely clear. I had bought a new
digital thermometer which is certainly more accurate, but not as
instant as I would like. Right above a jelly pot is real hot and
steamy! And those last few degrees come on real quick.
All the books say is to make small batches. I figgered from a
quart of juice and 3.5 cups of sugar I would get at least 6 cups
of jelly. Yield was 3 cups. Wish I coulda made 2 quarts at once.
OTH, the second quart, with 3 cups of sugar, no lemon juice, made
4 cups of product. Go figure.
Now for the question:
"When cooking jelly down without added pectin, does one
*simmer* or *boil gently* or *rolling boil*?"
I rolling boiled mine and we live in a real dry climate. Maybe
I should just cook to 2degrees less so jelly is not as hard? Or
maybe put my right foot in and shake it all about and do the hokey
pokey....The moon wasn't full either. Them damn sunspot things.
Edrena, The Gel Belle, having fun in the kitchen.