Wheat /gluten free bread recipe??

thriftlady_2

Yes you can Alfietinker,the Good Housekeeping Complete Book of Preserving has a recipe for Grapefruit marmalade, 4 fruit marmalade, as well as several other recipes with grapefruit.

Whilst on the subject of books,can I also recommend Simone Seker's Quick and Easy Preserves.I think its out of print but I bet you could get a second hand copy fron Amazon.It is an excellent little book.All the recipes are indeed quick and easy.They are for small quantities of preserves so much more manageable if you don't have the big pans etc.There are recipes for all sorts of preserves including drinks.One of the best recipes is incredibly easy-Superfast Peach and Apricot Preserve.This is made from a large tin of peaches in juice,the same of apricots processed to a chunky puree and boiled up with jam sugar(sugar with pectin added).Fantastic.

Alfietinker

Ta muchly!

Seakay

thriftlady wrote:

Marmalade time already!Thanks for the reminder,I make marmalade from seville oranges at this time of the year,and when we run out I use those tins of Ma Made ready cut orange peel.These are much less work,but not the same as doing it yourself.I do find cutting the peel tedious though,does anyone have any tips for speeding the process up?

I heard that the seville oranges in Spain are grown entirely for the British marmalade market,its a uniquely British food.

If you freeze your Seville oranges for a few days and then defrost them, they are softened and much easier to chop up. You can leave them whole in the freezer for ages if you want to, and make the marmalade when it's convenient rather than when the fruit first appears.


Another thing that I do is juice some of the (unfrozen) fruit, and freeze the juice in icecube trays. The Seville season is so short, and the juice can be useful for some recipes during the year.
If you are feeling really keen, freeze or dry strips of the pithless peel as well - useful for flavouring savoury sauces, rice etc.

tenuissent

I heartily endorse boiling the oranges for an hour or two before making marmalade. I find it easiest then to halve them, then scoop out all the insides along with the pips and much of the pith with a sharp edged pudding spoon, straight into a pan for further simmering, as others have said. Meanwhile I pile up the halves and cut several at once into not very beautiful strips.

I strain the pips/pith through an ordinary sieve, not wanting to lose any flesh which might squeeze through.

I don't find it necessary to sterilise the jars - I just wash and warm them - the boiling marmalade does the sterilising.

I do boil the lids though (recycled jars with metal lids), before quickly screwing them onto the jars. The marmalade then lasts for years, if it has to.

I always freeze a few oranges for later use in duck dishes etc when sweet oranges just are not tasty enough.

bugs

We've just had an article on marmalade making posted on Downsizer * and among other useful titbits the author says that if you freeze oranges for marmalade you'll need to allow extra in your recipe to make up for the effects of freezing on its ability to set. Hope it's of some help to others here - it covers basic techniques plus variations including grapefruit for alfietinker .

*For IE users, some random code is displaying on the article but that will be fixed today

Alfietinker

Just thought I'd report back on my orange exploits

I've made loads of jam but never marmalade so I followed the recipe from my beginners book.

I covered the whole oranges with boiling water and simmered for a couple of hours. The recipe said to cool and then cut the fruit but I ran out of time and just left the fruit in the water overnight.

The next day I cut the oranges in half, scooped out the flesh, put the flesh and pips back in the cooking water and boiled for 5 minutes. I cut the peel into strips and because the skin was so soft it was like a knife through butter and was really easy A bit messy but very easy.

Strained the cooking water into a new pan, added the peel and sugar and boiled until I had marmalade! I boiled it in 2 batches, one with treacle in and one plain.

6lb of oranges = 18 odd size jars! (about 2 years supply!!)

I have just one question. How do I stop the peel 'floating' in the jars? Some jars and the peel is distributed evenly, and some it floated to the top. I shook the jars and the peel dispersed but I wondered why it happened?

researcher

Alfietinker wrote:

Just thought I'd report back on my orange exploits

I have just one question. How do I stop the peel 'floating' in the jars? Some jars and the peel is distributed evenly, and some it floated to the top. I shook the jars and the peel dispersed but I wondered why it happened?

You should let the marmalade cool for at least 20 minutes if you've cooked the quantity you did before potting - or maybe your jars were too hot - they only need to be warm not hot.

Alfietinker

Ahh I see. It seemed to be the first batch I put in jars that floated - the second lot was better. (I cooked both lots simultaneously so the second batch would have cooled more). I must admit my jars were very hot. My grandad taught me to have them really hot so the 'button' pops down.

heaven_scent

Thanks thriftlady-I got straight onto ebay and got Simone Seker's book for £1.70! Anything quick and easy is OK by me!
Adding grapefruit, lemons and a lime to the seville oranges makes a nice tangy marmalade.

Zed42

Well, another thread leads to another thing to want to try to make!

So, off I trotted to Morrisons this afternoon and purchased a bag (1kg) of Seville oranges ... which are now simmering in my jam pan, another hour and then I'll let them cool and try to do it this way! Wish me luck, as I've never made marmalade before!

Thanks.