If you want to make syrup or a very sugary, caramelized jelly, make this recipe from Good Food Channel. If you want a really great, bright, citrus-y marmalade, use this recipe. After extensive marmalade research and the realization that I didn’t have a cheesecloth or muslin bag anymore, I went with the former. I then proceeded to almost burn the sugar, which is how my marmalade turned into caramelized syrup. Actually, the syrup part came from all the water in the recipe. You don’t usually add water to jam…Rather, you cook the water out of jam.
My point? Good Food Channel, I’m disappointed in you. My syrup-marmalade tastes more like sugar than oranges. And my second, less caramelized batch is a little more orange-y and pretty, but still doesn’t taste like Florida or Seville or even California in my mouth. I even measured all the ingredients with a kitchen scale for precision, for goodness sake.
And Guardian, I’m overwhelmed. I know that’s what that particular column is all about—being overwhelmed and making one thing perfectly despite it all. But, oouph! I didn’t want to make that multilevel, toppling tower of a recipe.
But you can still get great oranges this time of year (and not much else, sadly), so it’s still marmalade season in my books. And you really don’t want to be going outside anytime soon. So I challenge you to make exceptional marmalade in a warm kitchen. Open a jar on a cold, blustery day, and smile.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons (I got distracted while making the recipe and forgot to snap shots…)
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