Quince jelly/marmalade

[Meg]

Hi

I'm holding a banquet in September and wanted to serve quince jelly with cheese at the end of the meal. I'm quite happy to have a go at making the jelly/marmalade/stuff myself, but so far I've had no luck sourcing a reliable supply of quinces! I also have a horrible feeling that they won't be ripe in time. Can anyone help?

Thanks
Sian

[sally]

Quinces tend to be in season octoberish, but you might be lucky and get some very close to the banquet date. I think Martin does a Quince fruit leather though, would that be a useful standby? You could cook a couple down into a cooking apple jelly and that might be a good close second?

[Eve]

I bought some quinces in Waitrose just before Xmas.

I think you're right in saying quinces won't be ripe by September. I have a small quince tree that produced 1 quince last year but has loads of flower on it at the moment. You would be welcome to have some of the fruit but I don't think they'll be ready.

I do have some quince marmlat in the fridge now but I don't know how long it will last.

If you'd like it you're welcome to have it.

I'm in Milton Keynes.

[Vicky]

Not the same as making your own, I know, but you can buy quince jelly. Eg:

http://www.bakersandlarners.com/catalog ... cts_id/378

http://www.formanandfield.com/quince-jelly-p-430.html

http://www.daylesfordorganic.com/invt/1007442

http://www.delicioso.co.uk/shop/Cheese/ ... ince+Jelly)+350g

http://www.emmabridgewater.co.uk/Produc ... uage=en-GB

etc

[Tamsin Lewis]

Caroline Yeldham often has some for sale

[Scottish Lady]

I know it's a bit late to tell people this, but when we were at Lanark we went exploring a bit and we found a whole load of quince bushes complete with fruit, unfortunately not quite ripe! I can only assume it's still there.

[Eve]

My quince tree has dropped some fruit already. If you want to make quince jelly get in touch - I'm in Milton Keynes.

[gytha fiona]

A fairly good way to mimic the taste of a quince jelly without the quince is to add the juice and body of about 2 lemons to about 4 pounds of cooking apples. Then strain the pulp through a jelly bag.

I tend to do a taste test several times while I'm bringing it to setting point. I find that adding more strained lemon juice at this point isn't a problem as long as you're prepared to skim.