It’s that time of year, the work cafeteria bench is littered with citrus. Generally Grapefruit – I guess there are only so many Grapefruit you can eat. In my limited experience only two types of citrus are truly prolific in the Auckland garden. The first is the Lemon, which no one has any issue getting rid of or using, and they seem to be fairly happy just sitting on the tree semi permanently anyway.
Grapefruit is another story though. Equally if not more prolific but with a tendency to drop off the tree and rot to a consistency perfect for lawnmower blades or bare feet. I’m not a fan of grapefruit. I seem unable to handle bitterness of any type - Tonic water is my kryptonite.
So given that there was a local grapefruit glut I figured that it was Marmalade time – really it was the least that I could do. I started to make the Marmalade on Sunday. Unfortunately in traditional style I completely failed to read the instructions – slice four grapefruit finely and leave overnight. Damn. This cookbook when the next morning was a valid time to be making Marmalade.
So Monday night I got home and made my marmalade. It wasn’t too bad although as per usual the boiling took longer than advised. It’s very hard to give away liquid jam so I imagine marmalade is no better. It does look pretty though in the jars with the sun shining through and reflecting of the little strands of peel… Pretty.
There are two types of Marmalade in the Edmonds. The other is Orange. The Orange recipe requires “poorman’s oranges” as well as sweet oranges. I don’t know what they are. So I contact the nice people on the Foodlover’s forums.
They told me that – in short – what we call grapefruit are actually “poorman’s oranges” not traditional grapefruit which are a different colour and flatter. Like the Grapefruit you see in the shops. So I had just made poorman’s marmalade by accident. Bugger.
The upside was that I had no problems finding some poorman’s oranges!
So I made the orange marmalade. I think it was nicer that the grapefruit actually, a little of the marmalade caught on the bottom of the pot so it had a slight toffee note. I thought it added something, if anyone asks I’m saying it was intentional
Grapefruit is another story though. Equally if not more prolific but with a tendency to drop off the tree and rot to a consistency perfect for lawnmower blades or bare feet. I’m not a fan of grapefruit. I seem unable to handle bitterness of any type - Tonic water is my kryptonite.
So given that there was a local grapefruit glut I figured that it was Marmalade time – really it was the least that I could do. I started to make the Marmalade on Sunday. Unfortunately in traditional style I completely failed to read the instructions – slice four grapefruit finely and leave overnight. Damn. This cookbook when the next morning was a valid time to be making Marmalade.So Monday night I got home and made my marmalade. It wasn’t too bad although as per usual the boiling took longer than advised. It’s very hard to give away liquid jam so I imagine marmalade is no better. It does look pretty though in the jars with the sun shining through and reflecting of the little strands of peel… Pretty.
There are two types of Marmalade in the Edmonds. The other is Orange. The Orange recipe requires “poorman’s oranges” as well as sweet oranges. I don’t know what they are. So I contact the nice people on the Foodlover’s forums.
They told me that – in short – what we call grapefruit are actually “poorman’s oranges” not traditional grapefruit which are a different colour and flatter. Like the Grapefruit you see in the shops. So I had just made poorman’s marmalade by accident. Bugger.
The upside was that I had no problems finding some poorman’s oranges!So I made the orange marmalade. I think it was nicer that the grapefruit actually, a little of the marmalade caught on the bottom of the pot so it had a slight toffee note. I thought it added something, if anyone asks I’m saying it was intentional
1 comment:
Debbie,I never follow the recipe for marmalade anyway.Slice the citrus finely,boil it up, add a bit less the weight in sugar -cos I like bitter- and if you have added too much water,as I almost always do,chuck in a packet of jam setting mix.The purists will tut tut,but I make terrific jam and marmalade and this is my slap dash and very successful method :D
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