Update on jam fail, marmalade fail, kitchen sorrow

Having intended to make marmalade, with a bag of Seville oranges at the ready, I wasn't and I didn't. Cooking does need attention, and I failed to give it the time and space required for jam. 

Note to self: get on with it, don't just let everything sit and imagine you're cooking.

Apart from my lack of follow-through, I don't think the Seville oranges I got were very good. In previous years I've bought them from the local grocer and they were a lot bigger, juicier and more perfumed. I did get to the first stage of marmalade, squeezing the fruit and cutting the peel, which in itself is very therapeutic and makes your hands smell wonderful. I'd like to blame the quality of the oranges, but it was the quality of the cook that was the clincher. 

So, as my husband pithily puts it, the oranges ended up being expensive compost. The shame.

Cake meets trifle, smiling

Many people think cake making is a mysterious art. This seems to be driven by an unhappy equation: desire for cake over failure in baking. I have experienced this, in the distant past, when I forgot essential ingredients like baking powder or sugar, and more recently when a cake failed to meet my expectations. Fortunately on these latter occasions, the enthusiasm of those eating the cake reduced my disappointment.

Making cake requires a degree of concentration, and the core ingredients, usually these are fat, flour, butter, sugar and eggs, with flavourings. The basic sponge recipe is for every egg you should use 60g each of flour, sugar and butter. For a 20cm/8" cake (top and bottom) I use six eggs. That is a handsome cake, enough for 8 greedy people who really like cake.

cake meets trifle, birthday treat

Everyone should have a birthday cake on their birthday. It is a small offering, it is a chance to take a god-like pause. Birthdays come around more often than weddings, or at least weddings where you are the bridegroom or bride. In Schultz's Peanuts, Linus always took a day off on his birthday, I used to read the cartoon strip and think that it looked a bit boring. Now I think it is a small gesture of indulgence, and one that we should all try, some time.

As someone who bakes cakes, I greedily grab the chance to make that moment happen. Last week I made chocolate nemesis for my friend, Alex. Today I am making a concoction I call cake-meets-trifle for my pal Margo. It's a cross between a Victoria Sandwich and a trifle, but I've junked the custard. Nothing else about this cake is reduced. It is not a cake to eat without a plate and cutlery, unless you like licking your fingers and wearing a bib.

Recipe follows with pix.

marmalade three

I have had lots of compliments on my marmalade. I like making it, and it feels like time spent with my mother, grandmother and aunt. It is also a great pleasure, to come out as a culinary alchemist. All cooking is magic of a kind, and working with molten sugar produces a very particular golden bounty. My marmalade recipe is here.

I am just starting my last batch of marmalade for this year. In an unexpected last gasp of enthusiasm, I swiped a bag of seville oranges from Sainsbury's in mid February, and have kept them in the fridge, for no good reason, until now. The fruits have been well behaved, and are still good, despite the wait.

My mum got used to waiting, despite seeming an impatient person, trained in part by her five offspring, whose timekeeping was and is both variable and erratic. Within the family, the tardy was referred to as a Late Long. I am a Late Long, and I should have a badge made, to warn to unwary.

Recipes for marmalade, in many of the cookbooks I refer to, often mention that it's best to make marmalade with the first batch of seville oranges that come to town. I have never seen seville oranges until late January. My marmalade baptism was with the last few seville oranges at the bottom of the box at my greengrocer's. I only got them because his regular old (older than me) ladies hadn't come for them, perhaps having fallen victim to a particularly cold snap. My benefit. So most of the marmalade I've made has been with 'old' sevilles, and this last batch is in keeping with my sloppy beginning in the making of same.

The recipe I've been using refers to a given number of oranges, combined with a weight of sugar. However, this last batch are uniformly smaller than those I've used before, of whatever age. I started weighing the oranges this year, and they averaged 120g per orange - these weigh around 100g each. So I'm doing a five for four deal in my calculations.

Older oranges are easier to prep in some ways, because the pith comes away more easily. This makes cutting the peel easier too. I'm just setting the two bowls out now, and will cook and bottle the magic tomorrow.

marmalade

I finished the last jar of mum's marmalade about six months ago. It was very good. Luckily I'm the only one who likes it in the house, so I managed to eke it out. It was a rich dark colour with a clear jelly and had a wonderful flavour. Tangy, with large bits of peel.

So now I have to make my own.

Back to the source: using the inherited The Times Cookery Book 1960 (ten shillings and sixpence).

The recipe I'm following is for Dark Chunky Marmalade. Fingers crossed. In the usual style I have read this recipe carefully. I've also read my edition of Mrs Beeton's Cookery, New Edition, Ward Lock and Co. I've talked to friends who have experience making marmalade. I've checked out a variety of marmalade recipes and tips on the www.

Also I like chopping. I like the process. I’m not trying to do it quickly, so I'm disregarding recipes that claim to be labour saving, or that cook the oranges whole, since I don't have pans as big as bungalows, or oven dishes either.

Now I will follow the traditional cook's method and pretty much ignore them all and use them all, creating my own version.

I’m aiming high: to make marmalade with a clear-ish jelly that tastes fantastic and reminds me of my mother. Not much to ask.

I’ve noticed that some people weigh the fruit, and add a proportionate amount of sugar. I may change the amount of sugar. I’ve seen recipes that use twice the amount of sugar in the Times recipe. Some use white sugar, others sugar with pectin. Hmmm.

Recipe: Dark Chunky Marmalade
Ingredients:
10 Seville oranges
3 lemons
4lb dark brown soft sugar
3lb light brown soft sugar
6 pints cold water

Equipment:
For preparation –
Knife and boards, juicer, two large bowls, large muslin square.

For cooking –
Large heavy-bottomed pan, sieve, muslin square, wooden spoon, saucers, ladle, jam funnel, jam jars

Wash the fruit, wipe dry, cut into halves and squeeze – pour juice into a large bowl.
Put all pulp and pips, together with membranes pulled from inside of squeezed oranges into another large bowl with 1 pint of cold water, leave to soak 24h.

Cut orange rinds into slices – I cut each half into four slices and then cut a stack at a time into short slices. Put sliced peel into large bowl with orange and lemon juice and 5 pints of cold water. Leave to soak 24h.

Get out your preserving pan or a very large heavy-bottomed pan. Put peel and water into pan. Drape a very large strainer with muslin and strain the liquid, pulp and pips into the pan with the peel mixture. Tie the muslin around the pip mixture and add to the pan.

Put pan on heat and bring to a boil and cook fast for two hours,uncovered. Your kitchen will smell better than any fancy candle. Remove the muslin bag of pips etc and set aside in a bowl – be careful, it’s hot.

Chill a couple of saucers in the fridge.

Warm clean jars in a cool oven. Get lids ready, or waxed discs and sellophane to tie on in place of lid.

Squeeze liquid from the cooled muslin bag of pips etc into the pan, and throw the pip mixture away. Add sugar to the pan and stir until it dissolves – keep stirring the base of the pan, to make sure sugar doesn’t stick to it before it’s fully dissolved. Boil quickly for 20 minutes. *

Take pan off the heat, and test mixture on chilled saucer. If it sets, it’s ready to put in jars, if it doesn’t return to heat and cook on high heat a little longer, testing again until it sets on chilled saucer.

Pot the marmalade into warmed jars. Cover at once.

*this is a rolling boil

Using a preserving pan makes sense, because it has a pouring spout and useful handles.
Time for cooking after sugar is dissolved may vary a little; the colour deepens with over-boiling, but the fresh flavour is lessened, and the marmalade will not set.
Taking the pan off the heat when testing makes it less likely that the mixture will over cook.

Makes just over 12 x 8oz jars