If you've scanned past posts you would have noticed marmalade getting a mention here and there. What began as a quick trial of marmalade with some lovely little mandarins from the market a few weeks ago led to a repeat showing of the same at the first SkillCycle day.
As you probably know, marmalade is not everybody's cup of tea. It's not usually mine. Or Lucy's. But hey, I have loved ones that like it and, most of all, it's citrus season. In my house at this very moment there's a big bag of hand picked oranges from a friend, the leftover mandarins from SkillCycle, a small bag of blood red oranges that I couldn't resist (their season is apparently very short), and a mix of lemons, lemonades, mandarins and oranges from our Food Connect subscription.
It's getting out of control...
But why mandarin marmalade, you ask? Well, why not? They're a whole lot easier to prepare for marmalade compared to other citrus. They're easy to peel and we simply leave them in their little segments, removing loose pith and halving them to remove seeds. As I'm not a huge marmalade fan, I halve the quantity of rind used to give a milder, less bitey and bitter flavour. This seems to work quite well coupled with the sweetness of mandarins.
The recipe we have been following is over at a table for two.
There was a couple of things we did differently:
- 1kg sugar and 5 cups of water instead of 1.2kg sugar and 6 cups of water
- We cut 1/4 of total mandarin peels into strips (instead of 1/2)
- We put the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilise them (not in the oven)
- We sealed jars right after filling them with marmalade (not 15 minutes later as the table for two recipe suggests)
If you were one of the lucky ones who took mandarin marmalade home from the SkillCycle day, let us know what you thought! My impression was that it was more bitter than the first batch Lucy and I made. This may be due to the first mandarins being especially sweet and juicy.
Keep your eyes peeled as I'm going to follow up this post with another about general jam making and preserving.
As you probably know, marmalade is not everybody's cup of tea. It's not usually mine. Or Lucy's. But hey, I have loved ones that like it and, most of all, it's citrus season. In my house at this very moment there's a big bag of hand picked oranges from a friend, the leftover mandarins from SkillCycle, a small bag of blood red oranges that I couldn't resist (their season is apparently very short), and a mix of lemons, lemonades, mandarins and oranges from our Food Connect subscription.
It's getting out of control...
But why mandarin marmalade, you ask? Well, why not? They're a whole lot easier to prepare for marmalade compared to other citrus. They're easy to peel and we simply leave them in their little segments, removing loose pith and halving them to remove seeds. As I'm not a huge marmalade fan, I halve the quantity of rind used to give a milder, less bitey and bitter flavour. This seems to work quite well coupled with the sweetness of mandarins.
The recipe we have been following is over at a table for two.
There was a couple of things we did differently:
- 1kg sugar and 5 cups of water instead of 1.2kg sugar and 6 cups of water
- We cut 1/4 of total mandarin peels into strips (instead of 1/2)
- We put the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilise them (not in the oven)
- We sealed jars right after filling them with marmalade (not 15 minutes later as the table for two recipe suggests)
If you were one of the lucky ones who took mandarin marmalade home from the SkillCycle day, let us know what you thought! My impression was that it was more bitter than the first batch Lucy and I made. This may be due to the first mandarins being especially sweet and juicy.
Keep your eyes peeled as I'm going to follow up this post with another about general jam making and preserving.
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