It can be very hard. I used 4 pounds quinces, trimmed out to about 3.5
pounds. Chopped, stewed for juice with a scraped vanilla bean from the
War Between the States era or thereabouts (I misremember when I bought
it. Gotta label them cans and jars when I get them!). Then drip for 24
hours. Nice 7 cups of juice, added 3/4 c. sugar per cup of juice. Hm.
Never cooked jelly without pectin before. Here goes....cooked on low
boil for an hour or so, never jelled, raised up heat to high boil,
checked email & cruise web, never got up to required temp on either
thermometer. Cold sticky spoons and saucers everwhere. Finally took a
chance and poured into 5 8 oz. jars. Lovely maply color. Hard as rock
in the cooled jamming pan...uh oh. Hard as rock in jars. Scoop out,
add 1 or 2 cups water, melt down sort of, pour into lasagna pan. Will
cut into pieces & dust with fine sugar. Nice Candy. Went out & bought
digital thermometer.
Couldn't throw away all that lovely 6 cups pulp, made lovely quince
butter with 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each ground coriander, ginger,
1/4 teaspoon cloves and cinnamon (don't want to overpower delicate
quince & vanilla flavors) and an extra 2 cups water for simmering. This
stuff was real thick already. Simmer 15 minutes, pour into 5 sterilized
pint jars, process 5 min. + altitude. Nice, better than applesauce, not
so powerful as apple butter. Could make with less sugar or Splenda for
sure.
See also neato quince website www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html
Another lesson learned - the juice *should* be clear, but if it isn't,
don't dispair - when I added sugar & cooked, it cleared right up.
Back to cleaning up - it looks like a s**t blizzard hit the kitchen.
Edrena

Edrena,

That was a very funny story! You have my deepest sympathies. I
remember attempting quince jelly years ago from a recipe in the New
York Times. I had terrible trouble with the supposedly obvious jell
point.

Regards, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

I just read your story to my husband and found myself simultaneouly
laughing and crying. I've now had enough experience developing
recipes and dealing with recalcitrant jams (and candies) that your
story really hit a chord!

Thanks for posting, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

In article ,
The Joneses wrote:

It can be very hard. I used 4 pounds quinces, trimmed out to about 3.5
pounds. Chopped, stewed for juice with a scraped vanilla bean from the
War Between the States era or thereabouts (I misremember when I bought
it. Gotta label them cans and jars when I get them!). Then drip for 24
hours. Nice 7 cups of juice, added 3/4 c. sugar per cup of juice. Hm.
Never cooked jelly without pectin before. Here goes....cooked on low
boil for an hour or so, never jelled, raised up heat to high boil,
checked email & cruise web, never got up to required temp on either
thermometer. Cold sticky spoons and saucers everwhere. Finally took a
chance and poured into 5 8 oz. jars. Lovely maply color. Hard as rock
in the cooled jamming pan...uh oh. Hard as rock in jars. Scoop out,
add 1 or 2 cups water, melt down sort of, pour into lasagna pan. Will
cut into pieces & dust with fine sugar. Nice Candy. Went out & bought
digital thermometer.
Couldn't throw away all that lovely 6 cups pulp, made lovely quince
butter with 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each ground coriander, ginger,
1/4 teaspoon cloves and cinnamon (don't want to overpower delicate
quince & vanilla flavors) and an extra 2 cups water for simmering. This
stuff was real thick already. Simmer 15 minutes, pour into 5 sterilized
pint jars, process 5 min. + altitude. Nice, better than applesauce, not
so powerful as apple butter. Could make with less sugar or Splenda for
sure.
See also neato quince website www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html
Another lesson learned - the juice *should* be clear, but if it isn't,
don't dispair - when I added sugar & cooked, it cleared right up.
Back to cleaning up - it looks like a s**t blizzard hit the kitchen.
Edrena



My grandmama used to make quince jellies and I remember they were often
quite stiff (LOL) and she sometimes had difficulties getting it to
clear. Quinces have an inordinate amount of natural "pectin" and they
vary a lot depending how ripe they are. Sorry, I realize you know this
now. But I thought you might feel better knowing that my grandmama,
a champion of all manner of preserves, sometimes had problems with it
too. I ate enough quince jelly in my youth to last me the rest of my
life.

..

The Joneses wrote in news:3F874F87.3DE19629
@swbell.net:

It can be very hard. I used 4 pounds quinces, trimmed out to about 3.5
pounds. Chopped, stewed for juice with a scraped vanilla bean from the
War Between the States era or thereabouts (I misremember when I bought
it. Gotta label them cans and jars when I get them!). Then drip for
24
hours. Nice 7 cups of juice, added 3/4 c. sugar per cup of juice. Hm.
Never cooked jelly without pectin before. Here goes....cooked on low
boil for an hour or so, never jelled, raised up heat to high boil,
checked email & cruise web, never got up to required temp on either
thermometer. Cold sticky spoons and saucers everwhere. Finally took a
chance and poured into 5 8 oz. jars. Lovely maply color. Hard as
rock
in the cooled jamming pan...uh oh. Hard as rock in jars. Scoop out,
add 1 or 2 cups water, melt down sort of, pour into lasagna pan. Will
cut into pieces & dust with fine sugar. Nice Candy. Went out &
bought
digital thermometer.
Couldn't throw away all that lovely 6 cups pulp, made lovely quince
butter with 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each ground coriander, ginger,
1/4 teaspoon cloves and cinnamon (don't want to overpower delicate
quince & vanilla flavors) and an extra 2 cups water for simmering.
This
stuff was real thick already. Simmer 15 minutes, pour into 5
sterilized
pint jars, process 5 min. + altitude. Nice, better than applesauce,
not
so powerful as apple butter. Could make with less sugar or Splenda for
sure.
See also neato quince website www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html
Another lesson learned - the juice *should* be clear, but if it isn't,
don't dispair - when I added sugar & cooked, it cleared right up.
Back to cleaning up - it looks like a s**t blizzard hit the kitchen.
Edrena

I rarely see quince available anymore. My one quince jelly attempt about
ten years ago yieled the same as your initial results...hard as a damn
rock. I was p@$#%@ off and threw the whole mess out. Perhaps I should
have persevered. I had done countless cold saucer tests, as well as
using a termometer and it never got beyond sticky until it was completely
cold.

Wayne

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in
news
In article ,
The Joneses wrote:

It can be very hard. I used 4 pounds quinces, trimmed out to about
3.5
pounds. Chopped, stewed for juice with a scraped vanilla bean from
the
War Between the States era or thereabouts (I misremember when I bought
it. Gotta label them cans and jars when I get them!). Then drip for
24
hours. Nice 7 cups of juice, added 3/4 c. sugar per cup of juice.
Hm.
Never cooked jelly without pectin before. Here goes....cooked on low
boil for an hour or so, never jelled, raised up heat to high boil,
checked email & cruise web, never got up to required temp on either
thermometer. Cold sticky spoons and saucers everwhere. Finally took
a
chance and poured into 5 8 oz. jars. Lovely maply color. Hard as
rock
in the cooled jamming pan...uh oh. Hard as rock in jars. Scoop out,
add 1 or 2 cups water, melt down sort of, pour into lasagna pan. Will
cut into pieces & dust with fine sugar. Nice Candy. Went out &
bought
digital thermometer.
Couldn't throw away all that lovely 6 cups pulp, made lovely quince
butter with 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each ground coriander, ginger,
1/4 teaspoon cloves and cinnamon (don't want to overpower delicate
quince & vanilla flavors) and an extra 2 cups water for simmering.
This
stuff was real thick already. Simmer 15 minutes, pour into 5
sterilized
pint jars, process 5 min. + altitude. Nice, better than applesauce,
not
so powerful as apple butter. Could make with less sugar or Splenda
for
sure.
See also neato quince website www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html
Another lesson learned - the juice *should* be clear, but if it isn't,
don't dispair - when I added sugar & cooked, it cleared right up.
Back to cleaning up - it looks like a s**t blizzard hit the kitchen.
Edrena



My grandmama used to make quince jellies and I remember they were often
quite stiff (LOL) and she sometimes had difficulties getting it to
clear. Quinces have an inordinate amount of natural "pectin" and
they
vary a lot depending how ripe they are. Sorry, I realize you know this
now. But I thought you might feel better knowing that my
grandmama,
a champion of all manner of preserves, sometimes had problems with it
too. I ate enough quince jelly in my youth to last me the rest of my
life.

Isn't there some kind of test for pectin that might be a guide for
timing?

Wayne

The Joneses wrote:

Clipped quince adventure.

Thanks friends for all the sympathy, I needed that. The durn candy is still
sticky. Throw into oven for awhile or throw out? Ants need food too you
know. I did try the alcohol pectin test Wayne, and it's always been the
same - no matter commercial apple juice, pectinious quinces or my grandma,
all I got was cloudy alcohol. I think maybe I'll sacrifice a pretty glass
jar to St. Pectina by donating to Salvation Army. Couldn't break it, that's
a cardinal canner's rule. Maybe put candle in it & dance naked at the full
of the next moon?
Took the quince butter to the market this morning, lots of nice comments,
selling quinces for the Mystic River farm, got nice roasted peppers for
gratuity today, put in freezer on cookie sheet for bagging later.
Edrena

The Joneses wrote:

I did try the alcohol pectin test Wayne, and it's always been the
same - no matter commercial apple juice, pectinious quinces or my grandma,
all I got was cloudy alcohol.

Isn't there the cold plate test?

put a small plate in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and then a few drops
of the jelly on the plate? I've heard it should jell if it's ready to.

B/

Brian Mailman wrote in
:

The Joneses wrote:

I did try the alcohol pectin test Wayne, and it's always been the
same - no matter commercial apple juice, pectinious quinces or my
grandma, all I got was cloudy alcohol.

Isn't there the cold plate test?

put a small plate in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and then a few drops
of the jelly on the plate? I've heard it should jell if it's ready
to.

B/


I think the OP did this, as did I, and the results were always
runny/sticky.

Brian Mailman wrote:

The Joneses wrote:

I did try the alcohol pectin test Wayne, and it's always been the
same - no matter commercial apple juice, pectinious quinces or my grandma,
all I got was cloudy alcohol.

Isn't there the cold plate test?

put a small plate in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and then a few drops
of the jelly on the plate? I've heard it should jell if it's ready to.

B/

Yeah cold sticky plates everywhere. Goes to prove jellymaking is an art. I
just have to practice.
Edrena

The Joneses wrote:

Brian Mailman wrote:

put a small plate in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and then a few drops
of the jelly on the plate? I've heard it should jell if it's ready to.

Yeah cold sticky plates everywhere. Goes to prove jellymaking is an art. I
just have to practice.

But the cool thing is that eating the evidence isn't all that bad.

Pastorio

a test for pectin content, not a jell test, is to mix in methyated
spirits for a couple of minutes. the size of the globules indicates the
amount of pectin. never tried this test. came across it in a book.

one jell test while making jelly is dropping some in the ethyl alcohol.
another is letting the heated juice run off a silver or stainless steel spoon.
both tests are done before adding the sugar. I tried both tests several
times and they didn't work for me. I'd have to see someone else do it
right.

I read that the cold saucer test is for jam, not jelly. I saw it in a
government booklet on making jams and jellies. The same booklet gave the
ethyl alcohol test for jelly. Same booklet, different tests for jam and
jelly.


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

in article , William R. Watt at
wrote on 13/10/03 7:38 pm:

a test for pectin content, not a jell test, is to mix in methyated
spirits for a couple of minutes. the size of the globules indicates the
amount of pectin. never tried this test. came across it in a book.

one jell test while making jelly is dropping some in the ethyl alcohol.
another is letting the heated juice run off a silver or stainless steel spoon.
both tests are done before adding the sugar. I tried both tests several
times and they didn't work for me. I'd have to see someone else do it
right.

I read that the cold saucer test is for jam, not jelly. I saw it in a
government booklet on making jams and jellies. The same booklet gave the
ethyl alcohol test for jelly. Same booklet, different tests for jam and
jelly.


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned
This is about quince jam, not jelly, but has some of the same problems. We
made quince jam with very ripe quince, just picked the night before. Just
sugar, quince and a little orange juice. We cooked it until it tested done
on a frozen plate, bottled and sealed with a 5 minute BWB When 2 jars were
used they were more like sauce than jam in consistency. Good but not at all
jammy. Maybe the ripeness of quince is a real factor With most fruit I
have considered this, but quince are supposed to be ( and in my experience ,
have been) so h igh in pectin that this shouldn't be a problem.

My newsreader never gave me the original message, so I only saw the URL
in a follow-up. The URL given (www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html)
doesn't work for me. Is it correct or is there a different one to use?

I get the following error message:

The following error was encountered:

Unable to determine IP address from host name for
www.cresanu.edu.au

The dnsserver returned:

Name Error: The domain name does not exist.

Thanks,
Dave


Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote:

In article ,
The Joneses wrote:

See also neato quince website www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html

"David J. Braunegg" wrote:

My newsreader never gave me the original message, so I only saw the URL
in a follow-up. The URL given (www.cresanu.edu.au/-mccomas/quince.html)
doesn't work for me. Is it correct or is there a different one to use?

I get the following error message:

The following error was encountered:

Unable to determine IP address from host name for
www.cresanu.edu.au

I googled My Quince Jelly Page and got this again -
http://cres.anu.edu.au/~mccomas/quince.html
Sorry, my bad typing, looks like I left out a dot after "cres." It's a
fun spot.
Edrena