Marmalade

I would have thought that a food processor would do the job, I always used mine when making home made mincemeat for Christmas.

I have very successfully used my Kenwood liquidiser to chonk it up.

But I buy it from DD' s church now.

You add water from the recipe of course.

I have just made some using my mum's recipe. I used a magi mix instead of a mincer and it has turned out beautifully, in a fraction of the time!

big chunky slicer setting on food processor. I have perfected the method
peel the oranges and slice as above
Stick the peel in the microwave with a drop of water until it is soft
Cut oranges in half and take out pips. (at this point you can boil and strain the pips to get the pectin which is scientifically interesting - ideal if you have a youthful helper)
or
buy a packet of pectin and throw the pips away.
boil or microwave the pulp.
stick it all in together with the sugar, water etc and then try hard to be patient and don't put in the jars too soon.

I soak jars and lids in slightly bleachy water and then drain them thoroughly and that seems to prevent interesting moulds etc. I find putting them in the oven a slightly scary prospect.

Jess! I just wash my jars thoroughly and then again in the dishwasher. I warm them in the gas oven on the lowest setting. I have had no problems doing it this way.

Marmalade makers all!
.
Do you cook up the pulp and seeds in muslin and and squeeze them out into the liquid to add pectin? does the finished marmalade stay clear?

I normal bottle my jams and stick the lid on straight away. When I tried this last year with the marmalade I found the sliced peel floated to the top.
There must be a temperature at which the mixture starts to cool and the peel is stuck.
How do others manage this?

Last years was made with Seville Oranges. It is very clear and tangy and that is just what I wanted. It might have been beginners luck. but I will try again.

I looked up on my jam shelf this morning. There is rather more Damson and Gooseberry jam up there than I had thought.

MiL's recipe requires soaking pips in muslin bag overnight with juice, water and peel. Then it's all boiled up with sugar and the bag of pips squeezed out. It usually comes quite clear and has a good set. I tried a pink grapefruit marmalade using a quicker method similar to making jam and couldn't get a decent set at all. Will try it again using Jesss method.

Sigh! I am going to have to go and have a marmalade sandwich now.

jinglebellsfrocks Marmalade sandwiches! You could call yourself Paddington in your next GN incarnation.

I dislike peel in marmalade. I have always used a jelly marmalade recipe from a book on making jams and jellies in the microwave by Sonia Allison. It's still in print I think.

I tried a recipe last year that boils the oranges first, it was a revelation. I put them in the pressure cooker with just a little water, then when they had cooled, separated the (falling apart) skin and fruit from the pith and pips, which was put into a muslin bag and dangled over the side of the pan. The peel was so soft I was able to slice it into incredibly thin strips.

The result was - have you ever tried Mamade? Exactly like that.

OH the same week made lemon and lime marmalade, slicing as thinly as he could, but none of us eat it because the peel is still just too coarse for us to like it.

I always pressure cook the oranges before slicing/chopping them too. Even freezing them makes them softer than using straight away. In fact I do both - buy Seville oranges when they are in the shops and freeze them to use later, pressure cook them before cutting them up roughly, and then put them in a food processor to chop more finely.

I take out the pips before the food processor point, and boil them up again in a small amount of water, which I then strain into the mush and throw out the pips. I never had any problem with setting, so I must extract most of the pectin from the pips into the water. No faffing around with sticky muslin bags.

I haven't made marmalade for years, but really fancy making some now for some strange reason.

I have looked at two recipes. One (an old one) leaves the pith on the skin. Just the pips and membrane are boiled in muslin then discarded. The other recipe also removes the pith for cooking with the pips and membrane in muslin.

Do any of you also leave the pith on the peel?

(I am fighting an adolescent urge here to make a joke about taking the pith, but will try to resist. Oops, I might just have failed! )

I use the whole orange, pith and all. All I remove are blemishes and the eye bit where the stalk was attached, but that is for appearance - I am sure they would taste perfectly OK. I also add a couple of lemons to give it an extra zing.

I am taking in all this wisdom.
For those who put the peel into their marmalade!
How do you solve the "peel floating at the top" problem.

Nelliemoser: According to all the recipes that I have just been looking at, once you reach setting point you are meant to wait 15 mins then stir the marmalade before putting your jam into jars. I will put this to the test later!

I take the marmalade off the heat and by the time I've skimmed the worst off and stirred it around a bit, maybe five minutes, it's cooled a little and the bits stay suspended. (And please no wise cracks MamaCaz about my bits being nicely suspended!)

And I don't worry about the pith, it seems to vanish in the cooking. My muslin bag (actually old net curtain) came a bit undone so I've got several stray pips that I couldn't catch in there too. Adds to the authenticity of the home made look!

Thanks Mamacaz and NFK When I get my hands on the oranges I will try that.

When you cook the oranges first it isn't a problem, but yes, leave it for ten minutes or so then stir, then pour into the jars, which goes against the grain with me because I like it to be as hot and runny as possible when I pour it.

I made the recipe for marmalade with whisky which was featured in Gardeners World magazine this month. It make a lovely marmalade as it uses brown sugar so you get a deep rich flavour (also means you get to have a swig of whisky as you are cooking!). Trouble is I forget that I didn't have many spare jars so once I had filled them I still had loads left. Rather than waste that lovely marmalade I poured it into a Pyrex bowl and stuffed it in the fridge where it keeps haunting me every time I open the door.

I tried a new recipe last year, boiling the fruit first and then (once cooled) halving them, removing the pith and "innards", saving pips, etc in muslin bag for pectin. This worked very well, and slicing the skins was so much easier - I quite enjoyed the task. Have tried using a food processor, but I find the chopped remains can contain larger bits which need to be sliced anyway. Allowing the marmalade to cool for about 5 - 10 minutes means the peel is dispersed throughout the jam. I don't really like "bits" as a rule, but they are so soft and flavoursome in home-made preserves, I now enjoy them. I also follow WI method for sterilising the jars: wash in warm, soapy water, rinse and leave to drain thoroughly. Then into a warm oven gas mark 3, well-spaced on a baking tray for 30 minutes. Well worth the effort!

It sounds as if you found the same recipe I did, dahlia. So much nicer, both to make and to eat.

Bonne Maman used to make a delicious jam which had orange slices suspended around the jar. Any suggestions how to make that?