Always use fresh, dry and slightly under ripe fruit, only wash it if necessary and if you do have to wash it, make sure to dry it thoroughly.
2. Simmer The Fruit Before Adding The Sugar
At the start of your recipe, we recommend to always simmer the fruit on its own before adding any sugar or other ingredients. This will draw out the pectin and allows the fruit to soften. If you are working with hard fruits, then always add a little water to the pan during stewing, this will help to soften the fruit and skin.
It is important to do this before adding sugar because once sugar is added the fruit/skins will not soften any further.
3. Add A Knob Of Butter
To prevent scum forming on the top of your jam, add a knob of butter to your fruit at the same time as you add the sugar, we recommend 20 grams per 1 kilogram of fruit.
Note: Scum is nothing sinister, it is only air bubbles that are created during the cooking process, they will not ruin your jam/marmalade if they form. If you do not want to add butter to your preserve, then you can remove the scum by either stirring the jam in the same direction continuously until it has dispersed or using a slotted spoon skim the jam to remove the scum.
4. Allow To Warm Before Boiling
To help keep the fruit in your jam/marmalade whole or in chunky pieces allow the sugar and fruit mixture to warm up gently before bringing it to the boil.
5. Do Not Stir Once Mixture Is Boiling
Once your jam/marmalade it has reached a rapid rolling boil do not stir it. Stirring it will alter the temperature of the jam/marmalade meaning it will take longer to reach the setting point.
6. Once The Setting Point Has Been Reached Allow The Pan To Rest
To help make sure that the fruit is evenly distributed throughout your jam or marmalade, allow the pan to rest for 10 minutes after setting point has been reached. This will give the mixture time to thicken a little bit more which should help to hold the fruit in its place. If the fruit rises to the surface during this time then stir the preserve to re-distribute it and pot immediately.
Take the plate out and push your finger through the liquid part.If it “wrinkles” and looks like, well, set jelly, you know the marmalade is ready. Out of all the temperature readings or eye-sight cues out there for judging the doneness of marmalade, I've found the plate test to be the only truly effective one.
Take the plate out and push your finger through the liquid part.If it “wrinkles” and looks like, well, set jelly, you know the marmalade is ready. Out of all the temperature readings or eye-sight cues out there for judging the doneness of marmalade, I've found the plate test to be the only truly effective one.
Push the marmalade along the plate with your finger.If setting point has been reached then the marmalade surface will wrinkle slightly and the marmalade won't run back straight away. If it's not at setting point, return to the heat and boil again for 2 mins before re-testing. Repeat until setting point is reached.
- If your finger leaves a clear line and stays put, your jam or marmalade has reached setting point. If it bleeds back into the line, keep your jam boiling and test again in a couple of minutes. - Be careful as there is a fine line between nicely set and over-cooked jam!
Pop a plate in the freezer at the beginning of your cooking time. Once you think that your jam has reached its setting point or has thickened, spoon a bit of the jam on the cold plate and tilt it vertically so the jam runs. You are aiming for a slow descent, not a runny mess. If it runs slow, it's set!
Allow the marmalade to cool then push it using your finger. If the preserve has reached setting point then it will wrinkle. If you only see a very slight wrinkle, the setting point has not been reached so return the pan to the heat and continue to boil for another 1-2 minutes and then repeat the testing process.
But first, you gotta pick the right fruit. Historically, and even today, the best fruit for the job is a Seville orange, a sour-bitter variety that's used as a souring agent in many Caribbean and Latin American cuisines in lieu of lemons or limes.
What's the ratio of sugar to fruit in marmalade? Because of the tartness of a Seville orange, the ratio of sugar to fruit in marmalade is 2:1. This recipe calls for 2kg of sugar and 1kg of oranges but you can scale it down or up using that ratio.
The final secret in producing a sweet marmalade is to boil the orange peels several times to leach out the bitterness. You do lose a tiny little bit of the orange flavor this way – but trust me, you will still have plenty of orange flavor in the final product.
Many marmalade recipes will have you remove the peel, boil it once, twice, or three times, and then separate the tasty and colorful zest from the bitter white pith. However, you can also remove the pith at the start. Use a sharp peeler or paring knife to carefully cut off the zest from each piece of fruit.
Pam Corbin: Allow your marmalade to cool and relax before potting. This allows the mixture to thicken slightly so that the peel, when potted, remains evenly distributed throughout the jar.
Alternatively, dip a spoon into the marmalade, allow the mixture to cool a little, then slowly pour it back into the pan.If it is at the setting point, the drops will run together to form a hanging flake (this is known as the flake test). It can take up to 30 minutes to reach setting point, so keep testing.
The wrinkle test (attributed as O'Riain's or Leukens' wrinkle test) is a test of peripheral nerve function. The fingers are placed in warm water for approximately 10-40 minutes.If the fingers do not wrinkle, this is a sign of denervation.
Take one teaspoon of clear boiling fruit juice and drop into a cold glass or cup, allow it to cool for a minute and then add three teaspoons of methylated spirit and swirl it around or gently shake. If there is only a medium amount of pectin, several small clots will form.
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