Fun with Flowering Quince

First let me make sure everyone understands...this was all done with the fruit from FLOWERING quince.  Its a pretty flowering bush (with thorns). a LARGE fruit is slightly bigger than a golf ball.

Last year when i made this, i seeded and peeled them all...a really (REALLY) tedious process.

So this year, after washing them thoroughly, I covered them with water and just boiled them whole.

The smell (and taste) is something like a very floral pear or apple. It is excessively tart, and the floral flavor is very delicate.

As I boiled them, I mashed them into a paste, skins and seeds and all.

Once this was pretty well mashed (I'd say about 20 minutes or so--they are quite hard, and it depends on how ripe your fruits are.) It's time to sieve.

Drained the juice off to make jelly.

I put the liquid aside. Now, can you see all that saucy goodness? I couldn't just waste it all! Texturally, it's very similar to apple sauce. Took the mash and ran it through a food mill. I used the extra fine screen on it.

(apologies for the color; it really looks brighter green, rather than pea-soup)

This was 5 cups. To this I added 2 1/2 c. of sugar.  Boiled until sugar was disolved then into canning jars. Hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Now, remember I saved the juice? Quince is VERY high in natural pectin, so you don't need any surejell or any other pectin to make it into jelly. (I have considered saving the juice to use as pectin, rather than buying my own, but that's an experiment for another time!)

For 4 cups of juice, I added 3 c. sugar. Boil until it passes the jell test. (Drop on a cold plate, if it jells, its ready.) put in jars, (making sure jar lips are clean of any jelly!) seal and hot water bath for 10 minutes.
 For the 8 or so cups of fruit I had, it made 9 jars of sauce and 5 jars of jelly (half pints).