Last week we picked the quince from the front garden and Malcolm's sister Jennifer gave us some apples from her garden ......
..... so I decided to make quince and apple jelly. That meant that first I had to buy a jelly bag (or, as this one was made in Glasgow, a jeely bag!)
First, I chopped the up the quince and apples and put them in a large saucepn with just enough water to float the fruit.
After simmering the fruit until it was very soft, it was then poured into the jelly bag, which was suspended over a large bowl and left to drip overnight.
The next morning, I had a bowl of juice, with which to make the jelly, and the drained pulp, which wasn't wasted, as Alison took it home to feed to her hens!
Next, I had to measure the amount of liquid and weigh out the right amount of sugar (I had to buy some sugar - we use so little sugar I probably only buy one bag a year!!)
I then had to make sure that the sugar was properly dissolved, before bringing the liquid up to the boil, using my jam thermometer to see when the setting temperature was reached.
Then, the last stage was to put the jelly into jars, admiring the lovely deep gold colour as I did so. It tastes lovely - I think it will be delicious with roast pork and Malcolm fancies some on his porridge - so a very versatile jelly!!
....... and of course I will give Jennifer some, in return for the apples!!