Marmalade
There are many marmalade recipes out there, making life more
complicated for everybody than it ought to be. Peeling fruit,
carefully segmenting it, removing pips, finely slicing rind ⇀ all to
put in a pot, boil the daylights out of it and have it turn to a big
mush anyway.
Some things are worth doing carefully with patience and other things
really are not. Like making marmalade. Make it quickly and get it on
your toast!
Here's how to do it: Take any quantity of oranges, lemons or
grapefruit. Give the fruit a wash in cold water to remove annoying
little stickers and spray residue.
Put it all in a food processor and mince until fine. You may need to
do this in batches. I don't get too worried about pips. I have seen
recipes that add them on purpose for the flavour. If you see one, take
it out with a teaspoon but otherwise they will get minced up with the
brew.
Also, some recipes say to carefully remove the pith (the white stuff)
because it is bitter, but my marmalade always tastes delicious so I
don't think that is true. Besides, pith is one of the only foods
packed with vitamin K, essential for clotting blood, which is
especially handy in childbirth.
Don't add more water, bring minced fruit to simmer. Add sugar, one cup
for each cup of pulp (cup for cup) and simmer on a medium-high heat
for about 20 minutes.
Test for setting by placing a teaspoon of the mixture on a cold
saucer. As it cools the mixture should become a spreadable but not
runny consistency. If it is still runny, simmer for a little longer,
checking every five minutes or so.
When it is done, pour into hot sterilised jars and screw the lids on
lightly. As the jars cool down you will hear a "pop" sound from each
one. This is the lid sucking down to create a good seal. The jars with
the lids popped can live in your pantry for up to a year. Use up
unpopped lidded jars first.
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