Seville orange season...

Sue Veed

Veteran
Joined
27 Aug 2015
Local time
7:42 PM
Messages
30
Location
Nottingham, England
...why is it so short? About 5 weeks from early January in the UK, but "ordinary" home-grown oranges generally seem to be in season virtually all year in Spain!
Anyhow, we need to take advantage while it lasts, so I bought ~1.5 kilos last Saturday and waited until Mrs Veed was safely out for the day and not around to stop me trashing the kitchen. Also in the mix went 2 lemons and 3 limes which had been gracing the fruit bowl since before Christmas and soon wouldn't be good for anything. Sugar was mostly, I'm ashamed to confess, white granulated, but a healthy dose of Demerara, and even better, some Muscovado also went in to boost the flavour. In my haste to get the marmalade into jars and clean up the associated mess, I didn't squeeze the muslin bag containing the pith and pips anywhere near hard enough. After boiling for about 40 minutes, the mixture still hadn't reached setting point, but I stopped cooking and filled the jars regardless. BIG mistake! Next morning the marmalade was still semi-liquid! Fortunately I'd begged dispensation to leave the muslin bag and stainless preserving pan unwashed, so got up next morning, managed to force loads of pectin-bearing mush from the bag, and emptied the jars back into the pan. This time around, it only took about 10 minutes of boiling to reach setting point. Another 20 minutes of cooling so that the peel would remain fairly distributed, and the jars were refilled before Mrs Veed got up! A valuable lesson learned, and I won't make that mistake again.
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