Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Marmalade Day 3 (or is it 4?)

The red onion marmalade:  I'm not mad at it at all.  I think it could be better and may try it again, but not until I work my way through and/or give away the nine half-pint jars I currently have.  So what does red onion marmalade taste like?  Think about the warm bacon vinaigrette on wilted spinach salads.  A lot like that without the bacon.  The things that I think could be better about the batch I made yesterday:  1) more onions.  A lot more onions.  2) The added pectin jelled it just a bit too much.  I was hoping for a softer spread.  Beyond that, even the hubs conceded, "that's not bad, Luv."  We sampled in on Cabaret crackers with Laura Chenel goat cheese crumbles.  Quite tasty.

Grapefruit, blood orange, and red onion marmalades

Today I'm finishing a citrus-ginger marmalade.  I spent a great deal of time prepping this one and will be attempting a natural pectin method.  All the membranes and seeds of the grapefruits, oranges and lemons went into a jelly bag that will later be vigorously squeezed to release the pectin.  With the time and effort involved in preparing this one, I'll be rather disappointed if it doesn't work.  But some things you never know until you try.

I'd be lying if I said today was my last day of marmalade.  I still have quite a few regular and Meyer lemons left, so tomorrow will probably contain lemon marmalade, which to date is my absolute favorite. 

I am anxious, however, to move on to stock.  I absolutely adore making stocks.  This time I'm going to attempt canning them in the pressure canner instead of freezing them and taking up valuable real estate in our tiny freezer.  I've never used a pressure canner before.  I'll be calling my daddy for some sage advice!

No comments:

Post a Comment

What do you think?