Marmalade malarkey

It's that time of year again when Seville oranges are in season and I buy a marmalade making kit from http://www.riverford.co.uk The house smells citrusy all day and home made marmalade is definitely tastier, tangier and actually cheaper than buying marmalade. Here's how I make it. This year in honour of Burns night we made orange and whisky marmalade! 

You start with 1.5kg of Seville oranges and 2 lemons which you peel thinly leaving as much of the white pith as possible on the orange. You then chop the peel thinly (or thicker for thick cut marmalade) as pictured below. 

Peel

The oranges are then left looking like this. 

Peeled oranges

You then cut the oranges in half and squeeze all the juice and pips out into a muslin lined bowl. You then tie the muslin bag up around the fruit, giving it a last squeeze to leave behind juice like this. 

Juice

You then add the juice and peel to 2.5 litres of water in a jam pan. To that you add the muslin bag of orange bits. You need this bag of mushy oranges to add pectin to the marmalade. Pectin is what makes the marmalade set. (You can use jam sugar which already has pectin in it but I'll corm to that later.) You then simmer this for 2 hours to soften the peel. I always find that it doesn't take 2 hours for this part but about an hour 45. 

Muslin bag in the pan

After 2 hours or when the peel is soft you squeeze out the muslin bag. (Best to wait until things have  cooled a little before doing this.) Jase actually put the muslin bag in a colander over a large mixing bowl then pressed another mixing bowl onto the bag to get the last gloopy orange stuff out. You then add that gloopy juicy stuff to the pan and discard the bag of fruit bits. 

You then need to know how much liquid you have left in the pan by either measuring it or using a jam pan like mine that has liquid measurements inside it. You then add 450g of sugar for every 500ml of liquid. I used golden granulated sugar. I've noticed that using dark muscovado is popular in some recipes. I may try that next time. You can use jam sugar which I think would mean that you wouldn't need to bother with the muslin bag of stuff but I'm not sure. 

Sugar added

You then slowly heat the pan to dissolve the sugar for about 15 minutes. Then you boil the marmalade for another 15 minutes. If you're using a sugar thermometer you'll need to start checking once the temperature hits 104C or like I did this time I just started checking every 5 mins after 15 minutes. And when I say checking I mean testing to see if it's set. 

Boiling

To test for setting point have some saucers in the freezer. When your ready to test take the saucer out of the freezer place a tea spoon full of marmalade on the plate and put it in the fridge for a minute. Then gently push the marmalade with your finger. If it wrinkles and a clear line or track of plate is left behind where your finger pushed then it's reached setting point. 

Finished marmalade cooling

This year we then added 120ml of scotch whisky mmmmm before pouring the marmalade into sterilised jars. This year we made the equivalent of 11 small jars (actually 8 small and 1 and a half large jars.) I'm always concerned at how liquid the marmalade seems at this stage  it's not pulpy like jam. But one year I over boiled it and although it was fully liquid at this stage it set too hard. So don't be afraid if it a appears to liquidy. I'll post how it actually turns out once it's cooled. 

New Year

Doncaster car park and moon

I've been in Doncaster for the start of 2015 (after having a few friends over on New Years Day which was lovely.) I've been helping my parents look after my four nieces and their new puppy Jabba a German Shepherd and Husky cross. 

Here's a few photos of him the first was taken a couple of weeks ago the others todsy. He's growing fast! 

We've had a lovely time. We went to see the Hobbit (and I cried again at the end) we've been to the park and the shops. We spent half an hour star gazing in a freezing garden, frosty grass crunching under our feet. We composed music using garage band and played with Lego. 

Back to work tomorrow appraising a NHS standard.