OT: Quince Jelly.

If it's already dark and sweet enough, reducing it still further won't help. Maybe your quinces were deficient in pectin. You should be able to buy pectin at your grocery shop. Add the pectin and boil it up again.

Failing that, just call it quince syrup, and consider it as just another IDM.*

• Involuntary Design Modification

Thanks, I hadn't thought of adding pectin, since I've never used it. Quinces are normally very high in pectin, but these were very dry, and the pectin is probably in the juice. I live in a small place, and will probably have to make some from lemons. If I hadn't been making it for someone else, I would have cut my losses long ago!

Hi Joyce My former mother in law had a quince tree so I became quite proficient in making quince jelly. If it wasn't fully set I found it easiest to pop the jars in the microwave for a second boiling and this set them just fine without any adverse effects on the syrup.

Best of luck with it - it is a lot of work to end up with quince syrup rather than the lovely jelly.

Joanne in Australia

Anyway, the short form is, does anyone know a way to make a too-sweet syrup, which was supposed to be quince jelly, into a real jelly? I know I did everything as I have before, very successfully, but I may have overcooked the syrup, because it wasn't jelling. Would it work to boil again with more water and lemon juice? The whole effort has been a lot of work for nothing, but it's for someone else, so I can't just throw it out. I don't want to use gelatin - it just doesn't seem right, but I suppose if there's nothing else I can do.....

Joyce in RSA.

Thanks, Joanne. I've now boiled up some apple peel and pips, and boiled the jelly with the liquid. Now I'm waiting to see if it's improved. If not I'll try the microwave, but that's all. Do you just bring it to the boil, or leave it longer?

I've been cooking up 10kg of quinces over a week, and had only a litre of juice! I can't drip more than 2kg at a time, and it has been a terrible lot of work, to end up with less than a litre of syrup!

At least we'll have some apple pie from the apple innards!

Joyce in RSA.