Friday, December 24, 2010

Orange Marmalade

We picked a good 30-40 pounds of oranges this afternoon, so of course I have to make some orange marmalade (my favorite jam). I perused a bunch of recipes. Most use oranges and lemons, and I didn't have any lemons on hand. I found one recipe that just took the oranges and chopped them up and added sugar and water. So... for my experiment I chopped up six oranges, measured them, and added an equal amount of sugar (in this case, 2-1/2 cups) plus about 1/2 cup water. I brought it to a hard boil for 15 minutes and that was it. Very fast and easy. This marmalade is a bit "rustic." The chunks are a bit too chunky, and with more of the pith in there it was definitely more bitter. I think the lemon juice really brightens the flavor too. On the other hand, this jam took thirty minutes to make. I didn't have to peel of all that zest. Maybe I'll compromise and make half the jam the easy way, and the other half with the more complicated process. In any case, it really is pretty good!

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