Why make Marmalade and if I make it how will I use it up?

Even if the main marmalade season is more or less finished (well for Seville Oranges in any event) does not mean that you cannot make marmalade.  You can make marmalade out of any of the citrus fruits, either one in particular, or a mixture.  There are many different combinations and different methods of preparing the same. You can keep the rinds in or take them out and have like a jelly marmalade at any time of the year.  My OH for instance prefers his Marmalade without the peel and if you make it yourself you can cater for this.

If you have missed the main marmalade season you can always buy the pre-prepared tin of Seville Oranges, or Oranges and Lemons from places like Waitrose and Lakeland.  The better-known brand is perhaps Ma Made.  You just need to add your sugar, and cook your marmalade. If you have never made marmalade before, it might be a good way of introducing you to the joys of homemade marmalade. It saves all the prepping work and I myself when I have run out in the past have occasionally used this.  There is nothing wrong with this all it is, is a tin of prepared Seville Oranges.

There used to be a time in this country when making homemade preserves was the norm but over the years because of modern innovations, supermarkets and stuff being available a lot more easily it has become less and less.  It used to be required to make preserves to make sure that your family made it through a long winter and had plenty to eat. That is what my family have always done on both sides where they could.

Over the years as well, the methods of using different preserves or when they were used has been lost.  There are "rules" like you have Horseradish sauce with roast beef or mustard or Mint sauce with lamb.  In this house however rules were meant to be broken.  Sometimes,just sometimes a little experimentation is called for in the kitchen and that is how you find out what works for you. However, from my own experience, there are no right or wrong ways, it depends on your own personal palate and tastes of your family.  For instance, my OH loves mint sauce and has it with a lot of things apart from with roast lamb.

Now the problem seems to be that people just see a product from a batch of oranges, say roughly four jars per 1kg of fruit and 1kg of sugar and then do not know what to do with it and how to use it up.  There is always a way to use Marmalade up.

A jar of marmalade is so much more than just having it spread thickly on chunky toast. Although this is one of the primary reasons that I make it and I try and make sure that I have enough for the year when I do.  Even going so far as to freeze Seville Oranges for use later in the year.

Seville Oranges in particular have a sourer caramelised taste that is beautiful in a homemade Bread and Butter pudding with a can of mandarin oranges, and some dark bitter chocolate chunks in the mix as well as the Seville Orange (or ordinary) marmalade spread liberally.  You can even add a drop of Grand Marnier to add a little more flavour.  A really beautiful homemade pudding that makes use of staler bread and gives the family a real treat of a pudding.  It makes something out of items I normally have to hand on my pantry shelf, and the staler bread gets used for something other than breadcrumbs or croutons.

Marmalade can also be used in a lovely Marmalade cake and Marmalade Muffins.  Can be used in pancakes with ice cream or fresh whipped cream, if strained of any peel and warmed through can be used to glaze a fruit cake if you have run out of Apricot jam, 

It can also be used as a glaze for meat like chicken and as a saucefor Duck a l'Orange.

Marmalade can also be used in steamed puddings and used as a glaze along with ground ginger for gammon or a ham.

So when you start looking, there are various ways of using a jar or Marmalade (or several jars) and of course you can always give a jar or two as a present.

Catch you all soon.

Pattypan

xx