Marmalade

janerowena that's my experience too. Yes, JessM, in Gloucestershire, just the usual green grocer, but he did also have them for 38p each. Nothing wrong with the kilo I bought though. I found a recipe that said to add a little bicarb to offset the acidity and help the set. I will see if it works tomorrow.

At the markets here you can buy most fruit and veg for £1 a kilo at the moment. I would be there at the moment if it weren't for the freezing fog. I go there first, then plan my shopping list. Tesco grapes by comparison are unripe and ridiculously expensive.

Gosh icylittle - limes that cheap? Are you in the UK?

Re the slices around the jar.
You could possibly soften the sweet oranges just very slightly and stick them on with a thick sugar syrup and leave that to set hard, before you put the hotter marmalade in. Go one someone! Experiment and send us a picture.

My OH's is nice, but I don't know where he got the recipe from. I had to make him reboil it because it was too runny though. He is doing a lot of cooking lately, they have charity bakeoffs at work, and he wanted to make a lime filling for his own version of jammy dodgers. It ran everywhere! He will have it storen on the computer somewhere.

Yes papaoscar I have made mamade in years when I have lived in towns without nearby markets, and I made some two years ago when i missed the seville orange window, it came from Tesco. The 'cook the oranges first' method tastes exactly the same.

Anyone who can point me at a nice lime marmalade recipe? My green grocer was selling them for £1 a kilo this morning. I wasn't intending to make any Seville this year because I've still got lots from my last batch but that was too good to miss.

I have just done batch #1 2014.
It took a bit of rescuing as I made a mistake and did not do the calculations for the amount of sugar properly too little and had to add some more late in the process.
That was a problem of needing to change the given quantities as I do not have a proper size preserving pan. I was probably getting complacent, the first batch I made last year was fine.

It now seems full of tiny bubbles but fortunately it tastes good. I tried the drips from the tray I bottled the jars on.

Bought a Tefal jam maker.
Perfect jam, marmalade & chutney every time in fraction of time.

I do cut rind by hand though as I quite like doing it to be honest. With a good play on the radio I find it very relaxing.I tried doing it in various machines but it always went cloudy.
When we run out I buy Mamade to top up supplies & also have used Lakeland jam & lemon marmalade tins which work very well.

I'm adding preserved ginger this afternoon to latest batch as DH has hidden his whiskey ( I did use a malt last year by mistake- I was not popular!!)

I remember my old mother used to use Mamade orange concentrate in tins 60+ years ago. Can you still get it?

oh dear this is a long way from the rather over-chunky um, rustic, batch I made on Saturday. Should maybe have discarded 30% of peel. Those Seville oranges don't have a lot of juicy stuff in the middle...

It would make a lovely present.
If you thinly sliced a small sweet orange. Microwaved to soften and carefully placed the slices around the inside of the jar, then gently poor the marmalade in - would that work? Or would the slices be too soggy and collapse? Needs experimentation.

Maybe thin slices are added and stirred in just as it is put into each jar, that should work.

Ooh, now you're getting fancy!

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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!)

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 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.

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 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! )