Friday, November 23, 2012

Marmalade Three-Way(s)



Marmalade Mark I
Respect to Liking Pineapples

Start 1.5kg citrus = five grapefruit and one lemon
Citrus into suprêmes, peel skin off and chop
Reserve membranes, seeds, pith

Boil remaining citrus & skin = 550g in 1.25L, 250g of reserved bits in muslin bag for one hour

Cut muslin bag in strainer pot over pot of boiled fruit & peel

Left for ages as went out etc

Added 460g sugar, 35g of Hansells Pectin (1/2 packet) to the around 1kg of water & fruit

Boiled for 24 min stirring, testing every six till very thick and dark orange, bubbling like hockey pockey.

Yielded two jars of extremely well set marmalade, almost like fruit cheese. I definitely could have stopped boiling earlier.




Mamalade Mark II
Respect to Naturally by Trisha

Start 1.5kg citrus = six grapefruit and one lemon
Cut off ends as if to supreme, cored with apple corer and removed obvious pips
Reserve cores, pips
Slice with food processor disk finely, discarding large pithy pieces and slicing large peel pieces

Boil remaining citrus = 1.1kg in 1L of water, reserved bits in muslin bag for 45min as it started sticking

Left overnight as busy

Added 550g sugar,  35g of Hansells Pectin (1/2 packet)

Boiled for 12min at 115 degrees (got to nearly 120 at the end) with minimal stirring, testing every six till set as obvious through leaving in small glass bowl and separating into halves by finger and flaked off a spoon.

Yielded three jars plus 75mL cook's treat of soft, runny and very nice marmalade. I'm not sure its sour enough for my taste but I think I would struggled to set it with less. I think the slices could be thicker and larger but that would be hard to achieve without a larger food processor pipe or the effort to slice it myself.




Marmalade Mark III

Same as II but just cut core end off not whole top
Slice with FP disk thicker

Soak remaining = 1.4kg in 1L overnight

Boil remaining citrus = 1.6kg, reserved bits in muslin bag for 45min as sticking

Left two nights as busy

Added 500g sugar, 70g Hansells Pectin (1 packet)

Boiled for 6min at 105 degrees, burnt bottom and caramelised. Was very brown and seemed lightly jellified so stopped. Definitely sets quicker using all the pectin.

Yielded five jars of tart, runny and slightly caramelised marmalade with large chunks of fruit. I still like it but its an acquired taste as its slightly burned but tart. I think this would have been the perfect recipe with a bit more sugar and unburned!

Friday, November 16, 2012

WIP roundup aka do I have the right to knit a sweater



Actual WIPs
Noro Linen Bits (see above) - Most successful socks ever, finished one in ten days, going well on the second.

Nightwatch Lily - Not being sure if it will get much wear by my daughter has put me off knitting it. I hope to finish it before the end of the year but its not a priority in my knitting mind.

Hibernating
4 pairs of Socks - Vinnland are too hard, Hungry Bees pattern is stupid, Twin Rib is boring, Jays are tedious and tricky

Red Twisty Turvy - Will try to get it done before Autumn

Gotland Driftwood - Need to prepare and spin fibre to finish, not on the cards right now

Rock Island - This pattern kills, don't have the time for fancy lace.