The Lemon Fool

OK, that makes for an easy decision then. Thank you very much. regards, dspp

JohnnyCyclops wrote:So my main question is, how soon to start eating it? Does marmalade benefit from settling a bit and maturing (and if so, for how long), or can I jump in tomorrow for breakfast?

That is purely a matter of personal preference. Freshly made marmalade is very zingy and you can really taste the citrus. As it ages the citrus zing is replaced with a deeper flavour. I love well matured marmalade, at least 3 years old, but sometimes the citrus zing of freshly made marmalade hits the spot perfectly, if that's what I'm in the mood for.

As you only have the one jar, you have to make a choice. I'm lucky enough to have some very old marmalade and some newer marmalade in the garage and I can have both.

Okay, this thread inspired me. On Friday I went to Morrisons and bought the Seville oranges and granulated sugar. On Saturday I had my first ever attempt into jam making (I might have helped my mum when she once made marmalade when I was a teenager, but I might just have done the washing up). I had quite a lot of the equipment that I bought with Lakeland vouchers from a big birthday three years ago, all sitting at the back of the cupboard gathering dust. It was quite time consuming chopping all the peel, and perhaps I didn't boil the peel long enough, but I now have enough marmalade to last me and a few friends a year or so. We had it on toast on Sunday evening, and it was very nice marmalade. And at £3.20 for 7 jars and a big tub (about 1.5 jars) it was a bargain!

I will DEFINITELY be doing this again next year (possibly halving the quantities, but the bag of oranges was the correct size for Delia's recipe), and I will DEFINITELY be trying a lemon / lime / grapefruit version in the summer. I also hope to try strawberry jam in the summer, but that relies on being able to get strawberries at the right time and having the time / energy to make the jam the same day (i.e. before they go mouldy or get eaten).

Thanks for the inspiration I needed to get myself going!

When you make your strawberry jam, do marinate the strawberries in the sugar first. This will keep them whole instead of cooking down to a mush.

john

johnstevens77 wrote:When you make your strawberry jam, do marinate the strawberries in the sugar first. This will keep them whole instead of cooking down to a mush.

john

Thats a top tip John - will try it next time I make strawb jam. Does it work the same for other fruit jams - I'm thinking apricot or peach - have a great recipe from a French friend who makes wicked peach and vanilla jam

S

johnstevens77 wrote:When you make your strawberry jam, do marinate the strawberries in the sugar first. This will keep them whole instead of cooking down to a mush.

john

Ah, you can't keep everyone happy! If there's one thing I dislike, it's whole fruit in my jam. It makes spreading a satisfyingly even layer an almost impossible experience. Consequently I make a point of cutting my strawberries very small, or even gently mashing them. I think it reduces the cooking time too.

genou wrote:

dspp wrote:Thanks Skotch. A friend uses that method as well.

Anyone else got any tips on my 'hot hands' issue ?

regards, dspp

Do you own a ricer ?
This sort of thing: https://tinyurl.com/y7vo7p3x

Its been a dreich weekend so I've dug out a load of brambles, and made the year's annual supply of marmalade. As per usual 3kg of sevilles yield approx 8-litres of marmalade, and it lasts the whole year with maybe a week or two of marmalade starvation if we run out in the run up to Christmas.

For many years I used a clean handkerchief to dangle the pips in the pan. It was always a complete nightmare trying to squeeze red hot pectin out the hanky to get the set. So a couple of years ago I bought a muslin cloth and used that, but was still having the hot hands problem. I asked for suggestions here last year and genou volunteered the proposal of a ricer. Until then I never even knew what a ricer was.

My GF bought one at Argos yesterday morning for £10 and I've now used it for the first time. It really does do the job, squeezing all the pectin out from the pips in a most effective manner, and leaving my hands unburnt. I got a really good set, with much less effort than normal.

A side effect is that, knowing I had the ricer in the sequence, I used only one layer of muslin in my bag. Ordinarily I used two layers to avoid the muslin bursting when squeezed. My observation is that with only the one layer quite a lot more pectin had already boiled out and migrated off before I used the ricer. So maybe the real benefit was slightly indirect.

Anyway, thank you genou for that £10 suggestion which I can confirm was a really excellent idea.

regards, dspp

Our cupboard is full of jams and jellies so I only made golden shred this year. For a change, I put a tbls of Grand Marnier in each jar before pouring in the marmalade and started a jar as soon as it was set. Very nice but next year I shall add more liqueur. My recipe: if you don't have two pressure cookers just do it in stages, but you must have the larger size or the the juice will come out through the valve! I added blood orange zest this year for extra body.

Pressure cooker Jelly Marmalade (Golden Shred).
(Using two pressure cookers, one of which must be a large one, i.e.a high dome.)
Modified 24/1/2020
Ingredients
• 900gr Seville oranges.
• (Can zest extra sweet oranges to increase the zest content).
• 2 lemons
• 450gr sugar per 570ml extract. (1 lb sugar per pint). (About 3 lbs)
• Methylated spirit to test for pectin
Method
1. Wash and dry the oranges and lemons and zest them with a zester directly into the pressure cooker, add 700 ml water and cook 20 mins at high pressure. Cool slowly and keep aside.
2. Cut the oranges and lemons in half, squeeze out the juice on a machine and put the juice and pips into the 2nd (high dome) pressure cooker.
3. Chop the orange and lemon skins not too small in a food processor and add to the high dome cooker containing the juice and pips.
4. Add 700ml water, bring to the boil and cook 20 mins at 10 lbs. pressure.
5. Cool slowly, add the zest cooking liquid and mash with a potato masher, keep the zest aside.
6. Strain for 20 minutes through a jelly/muslin bag, then return it to the pan with 1ltr litre water, simmer another 20 mins and strain overnight into the first extract.
7. It is essential to test for pectin.
Take 1 teaspoonful of juice from the pan, and add 3 teaspoonfuls of methylated spirit. If a large clot forms, the pectin is adequate to obtain a good set. If the clot is poor or thready, add more lemon juice and continue simmering until a good pectin clot is obtained.
8. Measure and pour the extract into a maslin pan. Add 1 lb (450gr) warm sugar to each pint (570 ml). (The sugar can be warmed with the glass jars before adding to the extract, it melts easier).
9. Warm slowly until the sugar is dissolved then add the cooked julienned zest.
10. Bring to a rapid boil until setting point, about 104°C, I use the flake test. Remove the scum as it rises into a jug, then remove the thick topping and pour the remaining clear extract back into the pan. Eat the thick topping with yoghurt!
11. Let it rest for about 15 minutes and pot in sterilised jars while still hot.
Makes about 1.5kg jelly, 6 jars.

john

dspp wrote:Anyway, thank you genou for that £10 suggestion which I can confirm was a really excellent idea.

Pleased to have been of service.

I made one experimental batch this year. Zest the fruit ( sevilles / lemon / ( navel or grapefruit ) and reserve the zest, then shove the rest through a juicer. Soak the zest in the resulting juice overnight as normal, then boil the mix up with all the pulp from the juicer in a muslin ( the pips get pulped along with everything else ) , add sugar and make jam as normal.

It is, in the end, no less effort. But I suspect it would be easier if you had arthritis or similar problems around chopping.

It is, in the end, no less effort. But I suspect it would be easier if you had arthritis or similar problems around chopping.[/quote]

I use the processor as much as possible, much less effort for rough chopping of anything including breadcrumbs, I.E. I made Koenigsberger Klopse yesterday for lunch, fresh bread crumbs in the machine followed by minced lamb and veal and hand chopped parsley and lemon zest just to mix them together. Took no time at all.

john