Ahh, the lovely taste of Orange marmalade...I have never made orange marmalade, and since I didn't make any jam earlier this summer (I'm blaming the whole moving thing) I had to figure out some sort of homemade spread to make for my toast and sandwiches and such. But buying lots of frozen berries isn't exactly cost effective.
I actually love the taste of orange marmalade, even with the peels in, so that was a plus too.
I still had to buy oranges and lemons but I think that is a bit cheaper than the frozen berries. Next I had to peel the zest off of all those fruits. Fun! The lemons were considerably more cranky about being peeled than the oranges.
Next was peeling off all the yucky white pith and cutting the fruit into slices. Tip - remove the white stuff inside the fruit too. I forgot. D'oh! I was fishing it out later which was totally not effective.
Next, mix up the fruit and pectin and set aside. Boil the peels in water (or juice) until they are soft. Then add the fruit and heat up and add the sugar. Bring to a hard boil for atleast a minute and then put into jars for canning.
It went marvelously, but never set up completely. Marmalades are harder to set, and maybe I should have used extra pectin. Though some recipes use pectin from the seeds only, and not commercial pectin!
Marmalades can take up to 2 weeks to set. Mine never completely did, guess I needed more pectin. It works fine though as a sauce/loose jam. Tastes great. I plan to make another batch once oranges are really in season, maybe that will help!
2 comments:
I didn't realize you could use such large peices of peel! I've always grated the outside of my oranges/lemons for zest, never peeled! Does it just dissolve in the boil process or are chunks left and tasty? (I obviously don't know ANYTHING about Marmalade!)
You boil the peels and they get smaller/more flexible/break up. I love the slightly bitter taste of the peel in the marmalade, though that is the thing that most people do not like about marmalade. I saw a recipe without the peels, but I don't know how that qualifies as a marmalade, seems more like a jam at that point.
Post a Comment