Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
Citrus fruit is at its best at this time of year, and marmalade season is just about upon us. Or you might be wondering what to do with the last few sad-looking clementines or satsumas left over from Christmas. I ran across this, well, it's more of a method than an outright recipe, on a dog-eared newspaper clipping tucked into an old cookery book, and aside from a few tweaks, I've been making marmalade this way ever since. It's a lot less faff than most other recipes, and the beauty is, it doesn't matter how much or how little fruit you have.
A good, sharp serrated knife is a must, and I find that processing your fruit on a large, deep dinner plate helps containerize the juice.
1) Weigh whole fruit. Make a note of said weight.
2) Wash fruit.
3) Quarter (lemons, limes, tangerines) or cut into eighths (oranges, grapefruit etc)
4) Remove flesh from the peel (just run knife under it) and chop up flesh, discarding any pips.
5) Slice the peel as fine or as coarsely as required - pith side up, and it slices like a dream.
6) Put the flesh, peel and juice in a large (preferably stainless steel) pan and add enough water to just barely cover.
7) Cook on a very low simmer until the peel is tender and translucent. (A lid on the pan helps here.)
At this point, you can either a) leave to cool overnight or b) keep on going...
8) Weigh out as much sugar as there was fruit in step (1).
9) Add the sugar to the fruit (if the fruit was left to cool, warm it up first), stirring gently until dissolved.
10) Turn up the heat, bring to the boil and continue as for any other jam, jelly etc.
11) Test for setting point regularly (Marguerite Patten's cold saucer method is the bees knees here).
12) When setting point has been reached, take off the heat, let the marmalade stand for a few minutes before jarring up and sealing while still hot.
Any citrus fruit in any combination thereof can be used. Slivers of fresh ginger are a nice addition, as is a good slug of brandy or whisky. Just bear in mind that lime peel can be very tough and it does require about 1/3 more cooking time than other citrus peel. So if combining limes with other fruit, either cook the limes separately, or do those first and set them to simmer while then processing the rest of the fruit - there is nothing worse than tough peel in your marmalade. DAMHIKT...
Happy marmalade making!
A good, sharp serrated knife is a must, and I find that processing your fruit on a large, deep dinner plate helps containerize the juice.
1) Weigh whole fruit. Make a note of said weight.
2) Wash fruit.
3) Quarter (lemons, limes, tangerines) or cut into eighths (oranges, grapefruit etc)
4) Remove flesh from the peel (just run knife under it) and chop up flesh, discarding any pips.
5) Slice the peel as fine or as coarsely as required - pith side up, and it slices like a dream.
6) Put the flesh, peel and juice in a large (preferably stainless steel) pan and add enough water to just barely cover.
7) Cook on a very low simmer until the peel is tender and translucent. (A lid on the pan helps here.)
At this point, you can either a) leave to cool overnight or b) keep on going...
8) Weigh out as much sugar as there was fruit in step (1).
9) Add the sugar to the fruit (if the fruit was left to cool, warm it up first), stirring gently until dissolved.
10) Turn up the heat, bring to the boil and continue as for any other jam, jelly etc.
11) Test for setting point regularly (Marguerite Patten's cold saucer method is the bees knees here).
12) When setting point has been reached, take off the heat, let the marmalade stand for a few minutes before jarring up and sealing while still hot.
Any citrus fruit in any combination thereof can be used. Slivers of fresh ginger are a nice addition, as is a good slug of brandy or whisky. Just bear in mind that lime peel can be very tough and it does require about 1/3 more cooking time than other citrus peel. So if combining limes with other fruit, either cook the limes separately, or do those first and set them to simmer while then processing the rest of the fruit - there is nothing worse than tough peel in your marmalade. DAMHIKT...
Happy marmalade making!
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It's all the sugar isn't it?
