Marmalade

[Hilary B]

Lemon and Lime Marmalade from Delia Online
This makes a lovely alternative marmalade.

Yep, sounds good. You can save time (and gas) by using the pressure cooker. 40 mins at pressure will soften the peel nicely.
The other advantage to the pressure cooker is that you can put the shredded peel in the 'separators' and the pith etc in the base, when cooked lift out the separators, strain the pith-and-liquid mixture (easier to get ALL that lovely goo into the pan), add the peel back to the liquid and goo, add sugar, continue as before. I always found it near impossible to get much goo out of a muslin, and the goo is what makes the marmalade set!

[shirlthegirl43]

I made some jelly marmalade today. Started yesterday by steam juicing 2 kilos of Seville oranges, 5 grapefruits and 4 lemons. Got 4 pints of juice. Dissolved 4lb of sugar in the juice and left overnight as I didn't have the energy to stand and boil it last night. this morning it was brought gently to the boil then boiled fast until it reached setting point. Result - 6 jars of lovely tangy jelly marmalade.

Hoping to find more Sevilles today to make some marmalade with peel in for me.

[jackie j]

Am in the midst of making my marmalade at last and thanks to shirl ( had to pm for advice ) I think it will be ok time will tell only 2 hours to go lol

[jackie j]

Finally sat down at 10.30pm taken me nearly all this time to make marmalade, I dont think it will set properly cos I couldnt get it to go wrinkly in the tests so did it a few times after boiling it for a lot longer than recipe said.

[shirlthegirl43]

Yikes, how much were you making that it took that long? Mine is usually done in an hour or so. I am sure it will be scrummy even if it isn't set hard.

[jackie j]

Yikes, how much were you making that it took that long? Mine is usually done in an hour or so. I am sure it will be scrummy even if it isn't set hard.

I had 1.6kg of seville oranges just under a pint of orange juice and 6 pints of water 6tbsp of lemon juice simmered for 3hrs in the end cos it didnt reduce, added 3 1kg bags of preserving sugar disolved and then boiled rapidly for 15 mins, not set so kept doing 5 min spurts still not set, lost count of how many times I did the test still too runny. Can I do any thing to rescue it and make it a bit less runny ?
( Sliced the peel added to water and put pith and pips in muslin )

[shirlthegirl43]

You can put it all back in the pan and bring up to a boil and continue boiling till it does set. Will dig out my preserving book in a moment.

[jackie j]

You can put it all back in the pan and bring up to a boil and continue boiling till it does set. Will dig out my preserving book in a moment.

Thanks shirl youre a star will come back to this later, will do it tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

[shirlthegirl43]

Proportions sound about right except for the orange juice - was this juice from the pith? I would boil it up for a while till it thickens.

[jackie j]

Yep squeezed from the oranges and added at the begining cant remeber the exact amount but 3/4 of a pint ish

[Hilary B]

How thoroughly did you squeeze the 'pith-and-pips' bag? Did you get loads of sticky goo out of that? The goo is a big part of what makes it set. The boiling before adding sugar is only to soften the peel and extract the pectin (the active part of the goo). 2 hours should be enough. Once sugar is added (about double the weight of oranges) you just have to boil off surplus water until the sugar/water balance is right (a thermometer will tell you that, but not everyone gets on with the things).

[jackie j]

OH I squeezed alright lol I reboiled it this morning ( and added half a sqeezed lemon juice )for another 10 mins and then another 10 mins and now its set nicely. Thank you both. I also emailed silverspoon sugar and you can overboil which would also mean it wont set. I got there in the end but the boiling process took a lot longer than suggested.

[shirlthegirl43]

Well done!

[jackie j]

I think it might be too set now lol

[newbieveggie]

I had my first go at making marmalade this year. The only place I found seville oranges was at my local (has everything) shop. Bought 2kgs of them and proceeded to make an enormous batch of the yummy stuff. It took forever to chop up all the peel. I did it before they were cooked as apparently according to the Hugh FW preserves book Pam the Jam says it gives a clearer marmalade.
It boiled with volcanic ferocity and my cooker is still just slightly sticky, but boy does it taste goooood !!