Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Seville Orange Marmalade Part 1

 For just a few short weeks at this time of year the bitter Seville Oranges are on sale.  As the allotment is currently under water, it seems that making marmalade is a good way to pass the time indoors.
 The outer zest takes quite a bit of cooking to soften properly so I snip it into thin strips.
 This whole process is quite labour intensive but needs to be prepared well.
 Seville oranges have an amazing number of pips to remove. Probably 2 to 3 pips in each segment to remove. These will be placed in a muslin bag during cooking to release their pectin.
But the pips contain a large quantity of pectin which is what helps the jelly set when cooking.  I soak the chopped fruit and pips in half the quantity of water for 24 hours to help the pectin come out of the fruit before cooking.  More tomorrow.

posted by Matron @ 10:22 PM

3 Comments:

At 11:42 PM, Blogger Gardeningbren said...

Good..more tomorrow. This pectin thing. Would rather natural pectin, like when cooking quince. First foray, removed all the seeds so didn't jell well. Years ago.

 
At 12:39 AM, Blogger Bangchik and Kakdah said...

It does sound a little bit time consuming, but very rewarding...

 
At 1:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been wanting to make marmalade for a while but the written directions seem a little daunting. One question I have, You talk of using the peel, fruit, pips. I notice there seems to bee a rather thick pith showing in your photos. Do you cut the fruit out and discard the excess pith? Can't wait for the rest of your marmalade post.

 

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