Lucky enough to have a beautiful navel orange tree hanging over my fence from the yard of the neighbor behind me I have been enjoying oranges for a couple of weeks. The crop this year is particularly large so I decided to try my hand at making orange marmalade...mostly because I've never made it and partly because I know my dad likes it.
The first step was peeling the top layer of skin off with a potato peeler. I then used a sharp knife to scrape the pith off the peel. The oranges were much less pithy, the lemons needed a good scrape. The rest of the peel (the white part) was pulled off and discarded.
The insides were then chopped up a bit and set aside. I have a Meyer lemon growing in a pot that had several fruits so three of those were also peeled and chopped.
Next the peel was finely chopped. I stopped to sharpen my knife which makes a huge difference!
The peels were simmered with juice and a pinch of baking soda for 20 minutes and then the rest of the fruit (which had been mixed with a bit of sugar and pectin) and more juice were stirred in.
This was simmered for 10 additional minutes.
Meanwhile, it occurred to me that the peel from the oranges used for the juice should be scraped and covered with vodka, making the beginnings of a batch of orangecello. Sounds good to me!
After simmering the mix I added sugar, brought it to a quick boil for one minute and filled the jars I had cleaned and heated. I then processed them in a hot water bath and here we are:
my first batch ever of orange marmalade!
6 comments:
Leslie, that's awesome! And orangecello... I never would have thought of that. But that sounds absolutely delicious. :)
I'm impressed. I used to love orange marmalade. I love your photo of the oranges, it reminds me of an old masters painting.
Yum, to the marmalade AND the orangecello!
It's hard to imagine a place where the neighbor's navel orange tree hangs over the fence, Leslie!
I still love orange marmalade and this looks great, as does the Orangecello.
The Meyer's lemons gradually produced about a dozen fruit last year - no marmalade, but had first Meyer's Lemon Meringue pie.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Hi Leslie, how can you be so lucky to have an orange tree in your neighborhood? They look great! And thanks for sharing how you made the orange marmalade. I'll definitely like to try that soon after I get me some of oranges. Leanne, a good friend, just shared her strawberry shortcake recipe, maybe you like to make one too.
Great idea on both the marmalade and Orangecello. Your marmalade looks wonderful. I've got two huge orange trees and never thought of this idea. I think I'll take a stab and if they marmalade doesn't turn out so well, I can enjoy the Orangecello and lessen my disappointment :)
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