Kitchen Garden Forum

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/f ... althy-life

Who else has stocked up?

Reading that, it looks as if i'm far too young to be making Mamalade yet....

You've reminded me that I have a carrier bag of frozen Seville oranges left from last year; I only had time to do half a batch. I must get them out and start cooking, despite being, along with OH, quite cleary far too young!

This is the first year for ages we,ve not made any marmalade, either for ourselves or for our local fund raising good cause.
I don,t think you can beat homemade. In my opinion it has a subtle but totally different taste to the commercially made stuff. Our own domestic stock is now running low so next year we'll have to make another supply as it literally keeps for years!

Incidentally frozen Sevillles are easier to cut and prepare than the fresh ones once they've thawed through . We like our marmalade with lots of peel so in the run up to making it I usually save, slice and freeze the peel of any fresh oranges we,ve eaten and then add them to the marmalade mix. A citrus mix of Sevilles, lemons and grapefruits makes a lovely fruity marmalade if you fancy a slightly different zingy mixture.

I still have my grandmother,s cast iron preserving pan which she gave me when I got married. It's massive, almost covers all four hobs on my stove and in the early days I used it a lot (She had six children to preserve for so made gargantuan quantities) but these days I use big copper based steel pan which is easier to lift!

This year, as limes were on offer at Aldi, I put limes in rather than lemons. This cut the sweetness back very nicely.

Stephen, one year we made Four fruit citrus (orange, lemon, grapefruit & lime) for fundraising and added the lime peel in as well as the juice. We made up one batch on the hob and another batch consecutively in the microwave.
What we didn't realise as it was the first time we,d tried microwaving lime peel, is that it became like small hard wooden matchsticks And was potentially a tooth breaker . Unfortunately we only realised this after it had cooled and we had bottled it up.

As we were selling it for charity we couldn,t risk it. Had to melt the whole lot down, forage through & remove every single piece of lime peel and then rebottle it. Won,t ever make that mistake again! . Now only use just the lime juice...and yes, it does add a nice tang if you don,t like your marmalade too sweet, although we usually add slightly less sugar than our recipe recommends.

That sounds like hard work! I think it would have been easier to make a new batch!
Thank you for the warning, I won't microwave!

Generally I follow my mother's Seville Orange recipe. This year I only used the method. Boil to soften, shred, add the sugar and liquid, then reduce. In the past, the combination was 8 Sevilles, 2 sweet, 1 lemon per batch, this year it was more Sevilles and two or three limes.
In line with previous comments, my cooking is a bit slapdash once I feel I have command of the method.

All you marmalade makers, have you not found lime peel is very difficult to soften properly? Like Primrose, this year is the first year that I have not made any marmalade. II used to try all kinds of combinations, but gave up on lime a few years ago because it never softened as well as orange or grapefruit or lemon. Seville orange marmalade with some chopped up stem ginger always sold very well at charity events!

Relieved to discover you had the same problem with hard lime peel Monika. I thought it was just us until I researched it and found it was a common problem. I don't know how Roses Lime Marmalade keep their peel soft. Maybe it's one of their trade secrets!
The stem ginger marmalade version sounds nice. Must give that a try sometime.

Re:- ginger. I make Marrow Ginger - again from my mother's catalogue. I think it is one of the best things to do with a marrow and it is all mine as the undergardener doesn't like ginger!

On limes:- it certainly isn't as soft as orange peel but it is soft enough for me. In the past I have made both a lemon & lime marmalade (recipe from Australian Wonen's Weekly) and a gooseberry & lime jam (which I think was on the internet somewhere).

Primrose wrote:This is the first year for ages we,ve not made any marmalade, either for ourselves or for our local fund raising good cause.
I don,t think you can beat homemade. In my opinion it has a subtle but totally different taste to the commercially made stuff. Our own domestic stock is now running low so next year we'll have to make another supply as it literally keeps for years!

Incidentally frozen Sevillles are easier to cut and prepare than the fresh ones once they've thawed through . We like our marmalade with lots of peel so in the run up to making it I usually save, slice and freeze the peel of any fresh oranges we,ve eaten and then add them to the marmalade mix. A citrus mix of Sevilles, lemons and grapefruits makes a lovely fruity marmalade if you fancy a slightly different zingy mixture.

I still have my grandmother,s cast iron preserving pan which she gave me when I got married. It's massive, almost covers all four hobs on my stove and in the early days I used it a lot (She had six children to preserve for so made gargantuan quantities) but these days I use big copper based steel pan which is easier to lift!

No wonder she had such a large pot!

Re Marmalade. My late Mum always added marmalade to her bread puddings. Marvellous

Ah yes! So did my grandmother

retropants wrote:Ah yes! So did my grandmother

A skill lost by the present generation