Marmalade time!

[Ferretfancy]

Re message 38, wrap each orange in kitchen paper, put them into a plastic bag and into the freezer. All that's needed later is a slow defrost.

[amateur51]

Another essential element of making my own marmalade is that the product matures with storage,but I usually don't wait to start. On the first suitably cold day out comes the big basin, and I'm all set to make a steamed marmalade sponge pudding, lovely stuff with lashings of custard!
There's an item in this week's New Scientist about claims that DNA can "teleport" itself into a sample of pure water, and it might be possible to use the "copy" to reconstruct the original. This will almost certainly prove to be untrue, but it opens a lovely possibility, food shared via the Internet!

Cor!! Teleport me a bowl of the steamed marmalade sponge pudding & custard Ferret!

What a treat!

[doversoul1]

But what is it about marmalade that gets people to come out so eloquently here? I can’t imagine the same would have happened if the OP had been about jam making.

I suppose making jam is really for using up suppress, which is a chore. Whereas to make marmalade, you actually chose to do so and go out and buy the fruit, which is a hobby (I go out and buy Frank Cooper’s Original Oxford these days).

Alain
I imagine it was ‘fruit first’ where these oranges grow. Or is marmalade a British invention?

[mangerton]

Indeed they are only freshly available at this time of the year but they can be frozen and resurrected for marmalade at any time.

Thirty years ago I worked for a company which imported orange pulp preserved with sulphur dioxide to allow production throughout the year. Presumably this method of preservation is still used.

More info here, including the probable derivation of the word (marmelo means quince in Portuguese):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmalade

[marthe]

I love marmalade but have never made it. My grandfather made very nice marmalade. He was a chemist who loved the science of combining fruit and sugar to make jam or jelly. I was his best marmalade customer because he and I were the only ones who really liked it. Sadly we don't get Seville oranges here at any time of year. My husband is the real jam maker in the family though, and put up a lovely batch of crab apple jelly from the bumper crop of crab apples we had this year. His mother loved to pick brambles and damsons for making jam. She also made delicious lemon curd. My favorite jelly has always been a ruby-colored raspberry/red currant jelly made by my grandmother every July. The raspberries came from her garden; the red currants from a local farm.

[Curalach]

Mangerton, I think the Wiki article is pretty accurate about the origins of marmalade and it is appropriate that it should be highlighted by a Dundonian. Reading it, I became aware that I was reading, almost word for word, an article in one of the weekend papers. Sunday Herald I think. Lazy journalism or what?

I have sometimes frozen the oranges for a few weeks until I had sufficient time available for the manufacturing ritual. I have never detected any difference in the finished product.

[Flosshilde]

Mangerton, I think the Wiki article is pretty accurate about the origins of marmalade and it is appropriate that it should be highlighted by a Dundonian. Reading it, I became aware that I was reading, almost word for word, an article in one of the weekend papers. Sunday Herald I think. Lazy journalism or what?

I have sometimes frozen the oranges for a few weeks until I had sufficient time available for the manufacturing ritual. I have never detected any difference in the finished product.

Curalach - I read the same article. If it was last Sunday it was 'Scotland on Sunday'. I bought the new-look Sunday Herald & decided it just wouldn't do - how can one enjoy Sunday breakfast (croissants & marmalade) if one has to fight over who has the paper? Apart from that, my partner & I call it the Book of Revelations - practically every headline starts 'Revealed ...'

Yes, I've frozen the oranges when I haven't had time to make all the marmalade I need.

The first batch is cooling now - reached setting point, so I'll give it a quick boil tomorrow & pot it up. Then it's on to the next batch! (I do 3 pounds of fruit at a time).

Marthe - the chemistry is interesting, especially relating to pectin - I think I read somewhere that boiling the marmalade too much, or at too high a temperature, can destroy the pectin & therefore results in a marmalade (or jam) that won't set. I use a sugar thermometer to check that it's at the right temperature.

[marthe]

Flossehilde, I use a sugar thermometer for jam and candy making(American useage here). As with bread making, the relative humidity and other factors can lead to the success or failure of a particular batch. We've played around with combinations of high/low pectin fruits (strawberry-rhubarb) to make jam/jelly without using artificial pectin which sometimes gives jam an unpleasant rubbery quality. We've always had great success with our apples, both crabs and regular apples, because of their high pectin content. Concord grape jam/jellyalso sets well for the same reason. You're right about boiling and too high temps destroying pectin; also gives an unpleasant taste to the jam. Though we don't get Seville oranges here, I might try making marmalade with whatever's available at the supermarket.

[Eudaimonia]

Tried twice and ended up with something approaching an orangy version of Golden Syrup.

Really? Mine was such a dark, thick mass of fruit, it was a bit of a chore to get the spoon in-- and when you did carve out a lump, it just sat there on the toast keeping its shape! Should have served it with a melon baller.

This thread is making me want to try again-- though as I'm not in LA anymore, I'd have to buy my oranges from the store like everyone else. Or maybe I'll just make chocolate-covered candied orange peels and be done with it. That sounds like a much better option, all things considered.

[mangerton]

Mangerton, I think the Wiki article is pretty accurate about the origins of marmalade and it is appropriate that it should be highlighted by a Dundonian. Reading it, I became aware that I was reading, almost word for word, an article in one of the weekend papers. Sunday Herald I think. Lazy journalism or what?

Curalach, that occurred to me as well. It was Saturday's Herald - normally the only paper I buy, for Myops' crossword.

[MickyD]

Another use for marmalade in cooking - I spread some over the top of my bread and butter pudding before putting it in the oven ...it's heavenly!

[mercia]

... used a Spong mincer (long before food processors!). The pips were separated, and put in a small piece of cloth which was tied to the handle of the jeely (sic) pan, so that the pectin could be extracted.

Ah, thank you for sparking off similar memories for me of mother making marmalade. She had a large black cast-iron preserving pan which was until recently still hanging on a hook in our garage. My job as a little boy was to extract the pips from the surface of the bubbling cauldron. Then the saucer setting test. I had forgotten that the pips went into a bag, but remember our Spong mincer. Then, after decanting into the jars, triumphantly holding one up to the light to test for colour. Ah - happy days, long gone!!

[Curalach]

Curalach, that occurred to me as well. It was Saturday's Herald - normally the only paper I buy, for Myops' crossword.

Ah, Myops. The Saturday crossword and Monday's Wee Stinker. I don't like to miss them.
Indeed it was Saturday's Herald and I rather agree with Flossehilde about the new Sunday edition, the jury's out on that one.

Back to marmalade. The next time you cook a chicken casserole, like Chicken Basque, try smearing some marmalade on the skin of the chicken pieces. This produces a crisp tangy skin. Delicious.
I'm off to buy the Sevilles this morning. I notice that they are slightly cheaper than last year in our local greengrocer.

[David Underdown]

Sir Michael Tippett [...] put his recipe in the Guardian in an article on the self-same nourishment.

Humm the Guardian digital archive returns 11 hits for "tippett marmalade", from the previews, none looks likely to contain the recipe itself, and it's £7.95 for 24 hours access (you may find your local library offers access though). http://archive.guardian.co.uk

[Flosshilde]

Marthe, if you're using ordinary sweet oranges you could try adding some lemons (over & above the lemons used to give extra pectin) as well, to give it something approaching the bitterness of Seville orange marmalade. If you can't find a recipe I think I've got one I could post.

Re Seville orange exports -I think that virtually the entire crop is exported to the UK for marmalade. I wonder if there's any other crop/product where the entire output goes to one market?