marmalade questions

morganlefay

I have made marmalade for years, but then stopped, and this year have made some again, and now I've forgotten some of the things I used to do. I cook the oranges in my lovely Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, following their recipe, and then you shred the peel by hand (I put it in Magimix) BUT this year the oranges were VERY pithy, so I scraped a lot of that off and chucked it because I thought it would make the marmalade bitter - did I do the right thing ?
And then, though I checked carefully that the sugar was properly dissolved I had a horrible layer of burnt marmalade on the bottom of the pan, which it has taken me three days to clean off - how do you avoid getting that horrible burnt layer on the bottom of the pan ? I didn't stir it while it was boiling - should I have ? Help please !!!
BTW the marmelade was /is delicious :rotfl:

MandM90

Bumping this up as I'm interested (and maybe my MIL - AKA queen of marmalade) might come along and help

maryb

Morgan, I scrape all the pith out of my orange shells but put it in a muslin bag with the pips while I am doing the first cooking. I don't like very chunky marmalade but the pith helps it to set. When you finish the first cooking squeeze the bag to get out as much of the thick gooey liquid as you can.

Avoiding a burnt layer - no expert here (other than on how to get rid of it, lol - I recommend putting some dishwasher powder in the pan with some water and boil it up on the stove) Stirring definitely helps

mrssnowy_2

Hi morganlefey

Usually I pressure cook whole Seville oranges plus lemons,when cool cut in half scrape out pips and pith into muslin/pea bag,tie well,save to boil up again with extra water and shredded peel.
Peel will not soften after sugar has been added ,so boil till soft.I have had occasional batches over the years that are very al dente and not nice so I am a bit paranoid about this.
I have several recipes that I follow -usually all at the same time! The best one, for me, is out of a WI cook book.
The recipe says not to stir after sugar has dissolved but I don't like the cruddy bits on the bottom-or cleaning the pan.
Allow to stand for 5 mins before putting in jars.
Don't know whether this is of any help.
The results do vary but keep preserving.
Years ago I put a recipe for misers marmalade on the grocery challenge forum and it is in the list of recipes at the beginning. It is a good one to do and cheap.
mrss
maryb -sorry repeating what you said!

TBagpuss

I always scrape out the pith and put it into the muslin with the pips.

In terms of the burntness, I find that this depends a lot on the pan, I've found it's less likely where you have a good quality, thick bottomed pan.

adsk

I do stir the marmalade frequently while it's coming to the boil and periodically when it's boiling. I always use a pressure cooker to cook the fruit and for the final boiling and I've never had the sticking to the bottom issue.

To be honest I wouldn't worry about the oranges being pithy - it shouldn't have major effect on the finished product as you add so much sugar. You are just creating extra work for yourself removing the pith.

morganlefay

Thank you Mand M90 for bumping this - I was just about to myself ! And thank you for answering my questions, kind people. The marmalade tastes lovely, but I think I lost a lot of it stuck to the bottom (3 days of soaking with bicarb paste, and a lot of scrubbing later to get the pan clean again) I don't know why it stuck, never used to, but I shall give it another go as I've just bought some much better Seville oranges with almost no pith I don't think - think I need to be careful when buying the oranges in future ! Thank you all.......