How to make marmalade

[karadekoolaid]

Thing about marmalade and jellies is that the sugar concentration/temp is really crucial to the thickness.

When I was making loads of jam for supermarkets, eventually, we got it down to a fine art and knew (more or less exactly) how long it would take to make the jam set (10 kg lots).That was with 35 lt, stainless steel pots and industrial grade gas burners.
Now I've got a bloody electric cooker in the kitchen, I just have to wing it, but a kilo (2.2 lbs) of fruit usually takes around 20-25 minutes.

 

[karadekoolaid]

This is for my Mother, who claims to have to NOT eat sugar,

Sounds like my mum when she was around - but if the jam didn't have 100 % sugar in it, she'd complain

 

[Z-Cook]

My mum's recipes for jam ( and I imagine that came from WWII) all involved 1lb/1kg fruit to 1lb/1 kg sugar. Beet sugar, I might add, rather than cane sugar, which is sweeter. I modified that to 80% sugar and the jams still came out fine. I think I posted a jam recipe somewhere and @Morning Glory pointed out that Tiptree products only used 65%. I really don't understand the chemistry behind it; I think it comes down to what tastes good to you.

French style jam recipes use 60% and little or no added water, my preference too. I think it's to do with the concentration of liquid to sugar as well. No idea about why different sugars seem sweeter tho.

 

[Z-Cook]

I'm told that the secret is to use bitter, Seville oranges, which are more difficult to find here than an honest politician.

Surprised they're not grown as ornamentals which is how I mainly come by them here and in Spain. And def the secret ingredient in the bought stuff

 

[Barriehie]

French style jam recipes use 60% and little or no added water, my preference too. I think it's to do with the concentration of liquid to sugar as well. No idea about why different sugars seem sweeter tho.

Sugars is a very broad term. Aldehydes, ketones, and sugar alcohols taste sweet and all are present to a degree in any fruit. It's quite complex, cooking!

 

[karadekoolaid]

Sugars is a very broad term. Aldehydes, ketones, and sugar alcohols taste sweet and all are present to a degree in any fruit.

Just a mildy insane comment, perhaps. The English climate is not (or at least, wasn't) very conducive to fast ripening of fruit. My dad used to grow tomatoes (albeit in a greenhouse) and he'd plant them in April; the first harvest would be end of August. I plant them here and I've got tomatoes in 2 months.
However - I've never tasted sweeter tomatoes than those greenhouse thingies. Unbelievable, and it may, or might just be that longer ripening increase the sugar content of the fruit. I'd say the same for strawberries which, when I was kid, had a 6 week window from the start of June to mid July.

 

[badjak]

Dad was the one who made marmelade at home.
The oranges he used were unwaxed, green(ish) ones. They were much tougher, but mum bought them and those were what we ate. I think they were only used for for juicing for most "normal" families

I recall 1 kg fruit for 1 kg sugar. Plus pips.

We always teased my dad as the one time he made marmelade, and disagreed with us about the cooling test. He kept saying "mark my words, it needs to be boiled longer". He proceeded to do so and the resulting marmelade had to be cut with a knife.
We ended up with 10 jars of "mark my words" marmelade

 

[karadekoolaid]

Now there's another contentious point. How do you know when it's set?
I use the cold saucer method. I put a saucer in the freezer and, when I think the marmalade is ready, take the saucer out and drop a tsp or two of the marmalade on it. Leave for 5 minutes then tip the saucer to one side.
This is usually settled by applying this equation:
:H2(t)=(a˙a)2=8πG3[ρ(t)+ρc−ρ0a2(t)
Or by by checking the specific gravity of a cold beer on the windowsill every 10 seconds.

 

[Z-Cook]

It is an interesting and contentious point.

I also have pretty much always used the cold saucer method with variable results tho in the ballpark. Until my last batch a couple of months ago when I decided to try the thermometer method, no saucers.

Reason: to test an altitude/temperature question.

Like many and kaneohegirlinaz I was under the impression that because water boils at a lower temp at higher elevations etc etc, jam and preserve making temps followed the same logic and that you deduct 1°F for each 500 ft above sea level. That's about 11degF for where we are. That's what a lot of cooking info out there says too.

This makes 221degF/105C translate to 210F/ 98C for the set or jell point at our elevation. It never seemed to work properly tho, and I always ended up doing masses of saucer tests until it seemed to set, bottled the marmalade and waited, holding my breath for the set.

Long story short, was speaking to a village friend who had been making candy/sweets this past Halloween - her peanut brittle and caramels were amazing - and she said she just uses a thermometer and gets the mixture to the right temp. End of.

Made me wonder about all the high altitude blarney, so I did a batch of marmalade, no saucers just a thermometer.

At the risk of ending up with badjak mark my words marmalade I just kept boiling the marmalade until it got to the required 221F/105C.

Just in case people are falling asleep at this point - the point is that it worked. Just a thermometer. No saucers no guesswork.

Will repeat soon with some frozen prepped Meyer lemons that need to be used to make freezer space.

Sugar concentration is reached and indicated by temperature. Setting is reached by sugar concentration and acidity and pectin, a gelling agent and a sugar acid that is a structural polymer. What it says.

Pectin - Wikipedia

 

[Barriehie]

It is an interesting and contentious point.

I also have pretty much always used the cold saucer method with variable results tho in the ballpark. Until my last batch a couple of months ago when I decided to try the thermometer method, no saucers.

Reason: to test an altitude/temperature question.

Like many and kaneohegirlinaz I was under the impression that because water boils at a lower temp at higher elevations etc etc, jam and preserve making temps followed the same logic and that you deduct 1°F for each 500 ft above sea level. That's about 11degF for where we are. That's what a lot of cooking info out there says too.

This makes 221degF/105C translate to 210F/ 98C for the set or jell point at our elevation. It never seemed to work properly tho, and I always ended up doing masses of saucer tests until it seemed to set, bottled the marmalade and waited, holding my breath for the set.

Long story short, was speaking to a village friend who had been making candy/sweets this past Halloween - her peanut brittle and caramels were amazing - and she said she just uses a thermometer and gets the mixture to the right temp. End of.

Made me wonder about all the high altitude blarney, so I did a batch of marmalade, no saucers just a thermometer.

At the risk of ending up with badjak mark my words marmalade I just kept boiling the marmalade until it got to the required 221F/105C.

Just in case people are falling asleep at this point - the point is that it worked. Just a thermometer. No saucers no guesswork.

Will repeat soon with some frozen prepped Meyer lemons that need to be used to make freezer space.

Sugar concentration is reached and indicated by temperature. Setting is reached by sugar concentration and acidity and pectin, a gelling agent and a sugar acid that is a structural polymer. What it says.

Pectin - Wikipedia

No guessing! Where's the fun in that?