Wed 1 Jun 2011
Maligned Marmalade
Posted by Dana under Sweet
[7] Comments
Part of me wonders if the trepidation with which I approached this recipe is what made it not turn out. Like the Dog Whisperer or a lion tamer would say, “They can smell your fear.”
How exactly an orange develops a sense of smell, I don’t know, but those oranges knew I was worried about my marmalade making skills. Even if they didn’t smell my fear, they certainly didn’t agree to be good little oranges and turn into delicious marmalade.
We came into a glut of oranges because there was extra food left over after an exercise with Mister’s work, and to our house came a bunch of oranges, a watermelon, 3 loaves of garlic bread (mmm… garlic bread), and a 4 L carton of coleslaw…
the first salad I've ever seen in a carton, Mister says he likes it
I looked at my pile of oranges and immediately started dreaming of marmalade, sticky sweet marmalade, home made and sealed into jars all by myself. A very Dana type of dream to have. So I selected my recipe, read up on the chemical basis of jellying, researched points of view on marmalade making, and set out.
Has anyone else heard of warming sugar when making preserves? Darina Allen, the writer of the recipe I used for the marmalade, suggests heating the sugar you will be using in a metal bowl in the oven, so that the sugar is closer in temperature to the fruit component when it is added. She writes that warmed sugar will help the mixture return to a boil more quickly after the sugar addition, and the quicker the preserve is made the fresher it will taste. I definitely plan on trying this method again when I make a different preserve, as the rationale makes sense to me. My marmalade (or rather orange peel in juice) is fresh tasting, it just didn’t gel.
Next time there’s a stack of oranges in front of me, I will try again. I want to make my own marmalade, I just don’t know why it didn’t work. Any advice?
Whole Orange Marmalade
(from Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking)
Ingredients4 1/2 pounds oranges
5 1/4 quarts water
5 Cups sugar
Directions- Wash the oranges and put them into a very large saucepan or stock pot with the water.
- Put an inverted plate atop the oranges to help keep them submerged in the water.
- Bring to a simmer, and simmer for 2 hours until the oranges are quite soft.
- Remove the oranges from the water and reserve the liquid. Allow both to cool. (This is a good point to leave everything overnight, if you wish)
- Put a cutting board into a roasting pan or other container with sides so that you won’t lose any juice that escapes from the oranges.
- Cut the oranges in half, scoop out the soft centers. Slice the peel superfine and put the seeds into a cheesecloth bag.
- Into the pot of reserved cooking liquid, add any juices escaped from the oranges, the sliced peel and the cheesecloth bag.
- Bring to a boil and reduce by half.
- Pour the sugar into an oven safe bowl, and heat it in a 300° oven for about 15 minutes. The sugar should not melt, though it will likely get sticky so it will form a mold of the bowl.
- Add the warmed sugar to the pot, stirring briskly until dissolved.
- Boil fast until the setting point is reached (this is what never happened for me).
- Pot in sterilized jars and seal immediately.
Oh how I wish these jars were not full of orange peel in syrup. Maybe it would be good on ice cream? Do you have any preserving or marmalade making advice for this trepidatious cook?
7 Responses to “ Maligned Marmalade ”
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[...] is delicious in a fajita and just the right crustiness on the dark exterior. This time last year: Maligned Marmalade And the year before: Blueberry [...]
Apparently it’s not purely a question of temperature. The ratio of pectin to sugar to acid is important in jelly making and presumably also for marmalade. Harold McGee, the food guru, describes this in his book On Food and Cooking. Things like the surface area of the pot you use can make a difference in how the water evaporates during cooking. McGee points out that you’d need a lot of expensive laboratory equipment to verify these ratios with precision and suggests that since most cooks don’t have access to that kind of gadgetry they rely instead on experience, and even then they can’t always be certain of success. It helps if you just make small batches.
The great thing about preserves like marmalade, jam, and jelly, is that if you don’t absolutely burn them to charcoal you end up with something at least sweet and yummy, even if it’s not what you were aiming for. I got red pepper “roofing glue” once when I was going for red pepper jelly, but it made a great toffee filling for chocolates,.
Drizzle your oranges in syrup over some ice cream, put them under a pudding, or on a pancake–whatever. Then try again. Good Luck.
your marmelade looks mighty good! I want to make some!
Looks like a great ice cream topping
I am not much of a canner (I fear the process) so take my idea for what it is.. I used to make Jalapeno Jelly when I had the restaurant, I always thickened it with fruit pectin. I have to check the ratios but it worked
Mmmmm…I love marmalade! I need to make some of this to put in my oatmeal in the mornings!
Oooh, marmalade would certainly brighten up oatmeal for breakfast! Sounds yummy!
jams, jellies, and marmalades are so fickle–it could’ve been any number of factors that prevented yours from setting. regardless, there are many uses for what you came up with–bryan’s got a great idea with the ice cream topping…