What's Cookin' Now?

Day 45: Oh my! What's going on in Crow's kitchen now? If you guessed cranberry-orange marmalade, you'd be right. Second only to gooseberry jam, this is one of my favourites, but marmalades are more labour-intensive, so it's been several years since I made any. Those last two or three jars in the cupboard kept insisting, "You're not supposed to archive us!" but it's always hard for me to use the very last of anything. I haven't done much canning this year, so I decided it was time to replenish the pantry. I picked up all the ingredients this morning, and have the hard part of the job done already. A while back, I discovered a slick trick for taking the peels off the citrus without getting too much of the white pulp underneath. I use a potato peeler! It cuts the exact width I prefer for my "shred" (the bits of peel which are a characteristic of marmalade), and it's easy to stack three or four to slice into fine pieces. But then there's the problem of getting the white pulp off the outside of the segments. It's harder to do when you don't have a fleshy peel to use for leverage. In any event, the peels and fruit are now simmering to tenderize, and I'll be jamming tomorrow!

Cranberry-orange Marmalade
Remove the peel from 2 oranges and 2 lemon with a potato peeler. Cut peels into tiny strips. Remove and discard the pulp from the citrus fruits. Break apart, removing seeds and any fibrous bits. Grind the fruit in a food processor, leaving it a bit chunky. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/8 tsp. baking soda to the fruit and peels. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Add 2 pounds of fully ripe cranberries. Return the fruit to a boil and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. This can be done in advance (like, the day before).

Measure 5 cups of fruit into a large saucepan. Add 6 1/2 cups sugar and a smalll pat of butter to prevent foaming. Stir to combine. Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in 1 packet of Certo liquid pectin. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent floating fruit. Pour into sterilized half-pint jars (8-9), seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Double Batch

Day 362: Of all the preserves, jams and jellies I make, my very favourite is Cranberry-Orange Marmalade. I never make enough and always run out before cranberries come on the market the following year. When I discovered that the first crop had come in at the grocery store yesterday, I decided to seize the opportunity to get ahead of the game. I bought enough fruit for a double batch, and have been in the kitchen for the last six hours to produce a final yield of 22 half-pints.

Marmalade is rather time-consuming, but I've learned a few tricks which make preparing the fruit a little easier. Peeling oranges and lemons with a potato peeler provides delightfully thin shavings of rind and avoids adding too much of the bitter white citrus pith which can throw off the taste of the jam. I prefer a "shred" style marmalade with finely sliced pieces of peel rather than chunks, and this is easily accomplished by further cutting the strips of peel with a knife or scissors. The pith remaining on each orange or lemon is discarded along with seeds and as much membrane as it is possible to remove, and then the cleaned segments are put through a grinder. The peels, ground fruit and cranberries are cooked for half an hour with a little soda and water. Then sugar is added to the cooked fruit and processing continues as for any other jam.

Let's Do It Again!

Day 50: That was so much fun, I decided to do it again! Yep, my project for tomorrow is another batch of cranberry-orange marmalade. Like I said, it's my favorite preserve.

For those of you who'd like to try this delicious concoction, I'll provide Certo's old recipe which is no longer included in their jams-and-jellies booklet. It is more work than basic jelly or jam, but it does not take hours like preserves. The original instructions simply called for covering the marmalade with melted paraffin. I recommend processing in a water-bath canner for 10 minutes.

Wash and sterilize 9-10 half-pint jars and rings by boiling for twenty minutes. Leave in hot water until ready to fill.

2 oranges
1 lemon
1 pound fully ripe cranberries
6.5 cups sugar
1 packet Certo liquid pectin

First, prepare the fruit. Cut oranges and lemon into quarters. Remove seeds. Pull peels off and set aside. Grind the fruit segments finely in a food processor or blender. Slice the peels wafer-thin. Combine the ground segments and the peels with 1/8 tsp. baking soda and 1.5 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cranberries and return to boiling. Simmer for an additional ten minutes.

Measure out five cups of this processed fruit into a very large saucepan. Add the exact amount of sugar specified in the recipe. Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil, boiling hard for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and quickly stir in Certo pectin. Then skim and stir for 7 minutes to prevent floating fruit. Skim off as much foam as possible.

Ladle the marmalade into sterilized jars and seal according to lid manufacturer's instructions. Process in a water-bath canner for 10 minutes. Remove from canner and set jars on a towel, out of drafts, and listen for the sound of lids merrily plinking as they seal.

Makes approximately 8 half-pints (but boil extra jars just in case).

Cranberry-Orange Marmalade

 Day 49: I took a fit of domesticity today, stopping at the grocery store on my way home from town to pick up the fruit for my all-time favorite preserve, cranberry-orange marmalade. A friend had given me her canning supplies earlier in the summer when I complained of not being able to fit nine half-pint jars into my small kettle easily, donating to my kitchen several boxes of jars in various sizes, lids and rings, and assorted equipment. My intentions had been good when I accepted the gift; I'd already made one batch of blackberry jam and was planning to do another, but life got in the way, and the rains fell and ruined the berries. I felt guilty every time I saw Jean's granite cookware sitting in the corner. Briefly, I toyed with the idea of pear-tomato chutney, but pears were prohibitively expensive and I had "dinosaur chutney" ("Abdul's Brigadiere chutney") on the shelf. I don't eat much meat. It takes a while to go through a batch of chutney.

A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about cranberry-orange marmalade, my mouth watering at the mere idea: thin slivers of orange peel and lemon rind in a sweet-tart base, whole cranberries giving texture and color to the jam. Mmmmmmm! Delicious on English muffins, the marmalade also goes well on homemade bread, particularly those made with nutty-flavoured specialty flours. It is utterly scrumptious on "birdseed bread," my daily staple which is made in part with millet flour. Are you drooling yet? Come on over for breakfast!