It's marmalade time again

[Primrose]

The appearance of Seville oranges about this time always seems to kick-start my growing/home preserving year. Have spent the day making Seville & Four Citrus Fruit Marmalade using my grandmother's 100 year old cast iron preserving pan. It needs a crane to lift it and it covers two gas rings on the hob, but it's so much nicer to use than some of the (not) cheap but still nasty modern-day preserving pans that are available.

I always feel so smug when I see a nice array of newly filled jars lined up on the kitchen worktop but I don't think I'll be able to face marmalade on toast for breakfast tomorrow!

[alan refail]

Hi Primrose

You just "pipped" me to it. We got our Seville oranges yesterday and someone (not me) will be busy marmalading this morning. One lemon to five oranges, boiled in water first, then the pulp put in with the sugar. While this is going on she cuts the peel exceedingly fine - the worst part of the job. Half the oranges will go into the freezer to make a fresh batch in the autumn.

[Primrose]

Whilst on the marmalade making topic, are there any Marmaladers out there who can resolve one dilemma I have. When we use lime peel in our mixed Citrus Fruit marmalade, the peel often seems to go extremely hard like leather in a way that does happen with the orange, grapefruit & lemon peel and I'm wondering if anybody can throw some light on the reasons for this and suggest a way of getting it to soften up?

[alan refail]

Primrose

My wife only uses Seville oranges and lemons in her marmalade. I use a lot of limes in cooking, and I suspect the reason for your problem is that lime rinds are naturally thinner and denser (i.e. harder) than lemon and orange rinds which sit on a soft layer of pith.

Anyway our first batch is made and in the cupboard

[Geoff]

My wife made ours last weekend. The Sevilles looked like oranges, if you see what I mean, without the greenish blotches. It seemed to take a lot of persuading to set - do you think thee two things were linked?

[Primrose]

Possibly if the Sevilles were slightly unripe they might have been a little lower in pectin than normal which could have been a reason why the mixture took longer to set?
Meanwhile I'm still puzzling over our "tough as leather" lime peel. I will have to remove it all somehow as we've made the marmalade for a charity fund raising effort and we don't want anybody breaking their dentures on it ! If we were eating it ourselves we'd just remove the peel pieces piecemeal as we were eating it.

[Stephen]

Oh yes, I have one batch completed and a couple of batches under way. I should have bought some of the sevilles which were available in the market last weekend but other stuff got in the way.

[pongeroon]

Regarding the non-setting issue, I used to have this problem if I followed the recipe. But I always cook the marmalade for far too long, because we actually like dark, thick and very very orangey. It would'nt win prizes at the produce show, though, too unconventional. And it doesn't completely set.

Does anyone else have difficulty getting a good set?

[Monika]

I made mine last weekend from Seville oranges, grapefruit and lemons. I too keep off the limes because they never seem to soften, and I don't like the taste too much, either (they remind me of the smell of toilet cleaners - sorry!).

About the setting, pongeroon: if you use the right oranges and two lemons per 1kg of oranges, you shouldn't have any problem. Do you let the fruit bubble-boil rather than simmer before adding the sugar? If you don't, you may still have too much liquid which then doesn't boil away anymore. Also, always boil all the pith, pips and other off-cuts in a muslin or jelly bag and squeeze it out after letting it cool a bit.
But you probably already do that and I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs ...

[Primrose]

Well, can anybody help with my lime peel problem? I emptied one jar into a dish, pulled out all the lime peel pieces and poured the residue back into the jar. The problem I have now is that doing this seems to have "broken the set" and the marmalade is now permanently slightly runny.

Any thoughts on what I can do to try and "reset" it? Add some Certo or something? Reboil? Or will that kill it completely and end me up with a permanently liquid marmalade syrup?

[peter]

No preserver I, but surely you should reboil the marmalade and clean/sterilise the jars before refilling and resealing?

[Monika]

I think the re-boiling would work, Primrose. I have certainly done that with strawberry jam which was too runny. Perhaps a bit more lemon juice would help?

[pongeroon]

Have done all you advise, Monika, (multi-tasking; making marmalade and painting skirting boards.. .) and also boiled until very dark in colour and punchy in flavour , so it ought to set...still quite a few jars left from last year, so won't need to make any next year.

[oldherbaceous]

I always think a good marmalade should be the colour of axle grease.

[peter]

Fresh or oozing out of the bearings?