Music and Cats

We’re into the second week of Marmalade Madness (thanks for naming this event, Lindy), and since it’s now March, there’s triple alliteration. March hardly qualifies as high citrus season, but there’s still time for a bit more marmalading.

My first recipe of grapefruit marmalade made only 4 cups, which I put into one 8-oz. and two 12-oz. jars. I’ve already given one jar to a friend (see what a little begging will get you?), and my Texan relatives have been making noises about this particular preserves, so I now have a half dozen pink grapefruit and half as many lemons in the fridge to make another recipe this evening.

Paul and I are enjoying the mandarin orange marmalade that I made on Wednesday so much that, if I can get my hands on some more little delite mandarins, I’ll cook up a few more pints. Unlike clementines, which show up in Seattle around the winter solstice and are gone by the end of January, Delite mandarins are late producers, but perhaps not quite this late.

The lovely Bakerina requested the recipe for this marmalade, so I’ve written it out here for her and the rest of the Internets. It’s the Tangerine Marmalade recipe from Sensational Preserves, byHilaire Walden, made with mandarin oranges.

Mandarin Orange Marmalade
makes about 6 cups

• 2 pounds mandarins (Delite, clementine or other cultivar)
• 2 lemons
• 3 pints water
• 3 pounds sugar

Halve the mandarins and lemons, and juice them. Scrape the segment membranes from the mandarin peels. (DeLites have loose skins, so this is easy, and those thin mandarin peels don’t have any bitter white pith to remove.) Slice the peel into thin strips.

Reserve the mandarin and lemon seeds; place in a large mesh tea infuser ball with as much of the membranes as will fit. (I haven’t bought any more muslin bags.)

Combine juices, peel, water, tea ball and halved lemon shells in a preserving pan; bring to a full boil. Reduce heat, and simmer mixture for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours, until peel is tender and liquid volume is reduced by half.

Remove lemon peels and tea infuser from pan. Add sugar, stir until dissolved. Bring to full boil, and boil hard for 15 minutes, or until marmalade will gel.

Let marmalade sit for 5-10 minutes; stir to distribute peel evenly. You know the drill from here, yes? Ladle, cap, boil, ploink ploink, smile. Then you’re all done but for the eating.

Like some fine wines, many preserves improve with aging. (For preserves, we’re talking a few months, not years.) As this marmalade is made without much bitterness-producing pith, and doesn’t have a complex mix of flavors that need time to meld, it’s quite delicious just as soon as it sets. Perhaps it will be even better in a couple of months… and we should still have a jar or two around to sample then.

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