We did more preserving this weekend, with a batch of crab apples I foraged from a local tree, a couple of apples and a few quinces that had dropped off our bush early. The plan was to make a fruit cheese. The difficulty was that not only had we not done this before but we did not even know exactly what the resulting product was meant to be like.

I am fairly sure that the answer isn’t the thick globs of dark toffee we managed to create; I suspect the mixture shouldn’t have been allowed to creep up to the boil when the water was meant to be simmering away. We did manage to get them out of the ramekins we cooled the mixture  in overnight with a combination of blunt knives, boiling water and patience and we think the result will be usable but it won’t be the sliceable delicacy we were hoping for.

I think I might have another try but on a smaller scale, in order to have less waste and take less time for the simmering stage.