While most canning is reserved for the abundant summertime season, winter is also a great season to preserve citrus fruits. Candied orange peels, marmalade and preserved lemons are delicious preserves that are best created in this cold season.
Do you make marmalade? What are some of your favorite recipes? What are some of your favorite ways to use winter citrus?
Since I've never made marmalade before, I decided to make one from a new book called, Gifts Cooks Love. The recipe is at the end of this post.
The recipe has a note about looking for blemish-free citrus and after making this, I have to say this is important. You use the entire fruit to make marmalade and any brown spots, mushy areas, etc. are sure to show up in your final product. I personally prefer beautiful looking food and strongly suggest if you make this jam, that you find beautiful fruit to make it with.
Making marmalade is an intense process. This recipe took about 28 total hours to make but the work is differently worth it.
I did however learn a few shortcuts for the next time I make marmalade. A friend of mine suggested that instead of using a chef’s knife to thinly cut the oranges that I throw them in the food processor. I have to say, this might be a brilliant thing to do next time. I used both a chef’s knife and a mandolin to cut the oranges. I have a dinky little mandolin so if going this route; I would suggest a really good mandolin over the one I used
I would also suggest using the best and finely granulated sugar you can find. Regular granulated sugar can be cut more finely in your food processor. The fine sugar seems to melt into the preserves in a smoother manner.
Posts
