marmalade factory

Cooking like fashion , acting and sports is about showing off . Why else would there be six different ways to make meringue when one would suffice , or why would there be meringue at all when egg white and sugar are perfectly formed in their own right .

I readily admit that I get a kick out of putting  a steaming  pot of stew or chili  down on the table  in front of my guests and all the ooh and ahhing ensues , I get to feel very smug and satisfied with myself . and believe me when I say that nothing give you the that smug cooking pay off like  gifting  pots of home made marmalade.

Marmalade like meringue is more than the sum  of its parts bitter orange , water and sugar combine  in an alchemical process to form a wondrous amber jam . It is delicious  and homemade marmalade is much better than shop bought as it has a depth of flavour that is achieved by slow cooking in small batches . No wonder it was Paddington Bear favourite food .

Making marmalade is an easy but laborious task , it took my father and I  about four and half hours to prepare and cook  3.6 kilos of fruit and the result is thirty pots of jam.

It is essentially a  three step process ,

1.  preparing  the fruit  and separating it into the juice, the the pulp and the rind 
2. cooking the juice and rind in order to soften the rind
3. adding the sugar and setting the jam

 Recipe

This recipe will make about 6 pots of jam ( as not every body is a marmalade maniac like me )

900 grams of Seville orange

2 lemons

2.25 litres of water

1.8 kg of sugar
pop sock ( clean of course )







•  Wash the oranges  and cut them in half . Get a wide  set bowl  , squeeze the juice of the orange in to the  bowl . Scoop the pulpand the pips out the orange into the same bowl that contains the juice .  You want to remove all the pulp to leave a clean rind behind . To do this I use a soup spoon .

• The next part is the most laborious part of the marmalade , shredding the peel . It is up to you  how thick or thin you want your peel . I normally roll half an orange peel up and slice it by hand with a knife.

• Put the shredded peel into a sauce pan big enough to cook the jam in . I find that a five litre saucepan is sufficient. 
• Place a sieve over the sauce pan and tip the bowl containing the pulp and juice in to it.  Add the water to the pan by washing the pulp and any remaining juice through the sieve.
•  Next add the lemon juice to the sauce pan and scoop put out the lemon pulp adding it to the orange pulp in the sieve.

• The pulp and pips contain the pectin which is needed  to set the jam  Place all the fruit pulp and pips into a clean pop sock and tie in a knot at the top to secure . You might think the use of a pop sock is tad unusual for jam making  but I never really have  clean piece of muslin or cheese cloth lying around the house , so I improvised . In case you are not the type of person who has either , a pop sock or muslin cloth , you can use a clean j cloth instead  . Add the pulp to the water and peel , securing it by tying  to the sauce pan handle .

• Simmer the mixture on a medium heat until the peel is soft  enough to be squished between your fingers .  roughly about two hours 
  
  
•  Once the peel is soft enough , remove the pop sock and squeeze it to remove any of the pection . It is a cloudy viscous liquid .  The best way to do this is to place the sock in a jug and bowl and use a wooden spoon .  Then pour the squeezed pectin back into the pot .

 

•   Add the sugar and bring the jam to the boil . It will expand and change from opaque to a clear orange colour .

• Boil the jam for about ten minutes to achieve setting point. You can test this by placing a small drop of jam on a cold saucer ,  wait for two minutes and push the jam with you finger . If there are wrinkles the jam is set , if not it needs another two minutes of cooking .
• When you have reached setting point , bottle the jam . I use a jug to do this .



• eh voila , your own homemade Seville marmalade