BOM
On 1/26/09 (New Year's Day) i finished making my first attempt at Blood Orange Marmalade. Unlike the Blood Orange Jam, this time i strained the juice (of 13 blood oranges!) and mixed it with apple water as per Christine Ferber's recipe in
Mes Confitures. Unlike her recipe, i used the julienned peel of 4 blood oranges instead of two thinly sliced whole oranges. I'm not super into peel and neither is be, so thin strips sounded more appealing than whole messy orange rounds.
Another huge change was my reduction of sugar from the 4.66 cups she recommended to the 1.33 cups i used, which was the same 3:1 ratio as the BOJ. That ratio of orange to sugar was perfect for me -- not too sweet and very very orangey. I know a lot of jammers out there love making it really sweet, but i tend to like the least amount of sugar possible while still allowing it to gel. So far everything before has gelled fine, once even too hard (blueberry)! The grapefruit marmalade as per CF was very good in my opinion -- but a little too sweet -- so cutting out some sugar for blood orange marmalade didn't seem like a big deal.
The problem with this batch was that a 3:1 ratio of juice to sugar was MUCH too little. For a chunky jam it worked but this batch wasn't having it. I boiled it like nuts for almost 30 minutes, hoping it would gel. At 222 degrees it still looked like red water and had reduced from over 4 cups of liquid to around 2.5. I plate tested twice hoping i was wrong, but shit was not gelling. The only thing i could think of doing was to dump in another 1/3 cup of sugar. And luckily, the batch immediately thickened and plate tasted fine. I only got 1 half-pint and 3 quarter-pints out of the batch due to so much of the water boiling out... but at least it made the marmalade super concentrated. And yes, it gelled up shockingly nicely, like wiggly jelly -- no powdered pectin at all!
The next morning we tried some of the BOM on toast. It was tasty and somewhat sour but sadly, not as "fresh" tasting as the BOJ. It tasted more "cooked" in comparison to the jam, which contained pips and chunks and seemed to contain more of the essential oils. Perhaps i just cooked and reduced the BOM batch too much, so if i try again i'll use 1.66 cups of sugar for every 2.5 cups of juice and see what happens at 10 minutes of boiling.
Overall, though, the BOM is a beautiful dark, opaque blood red. I filled the half-pint jar first so all the rind floated to the top, but the quarter-pints have a more even distribution. Not a failure but not a grand success, either. It seems to have grown on be the more he ate it, so maybe i'll think the same when i eat it again.
BOJ
The blood orange jam came out good yet bad. It's technically a "jam" in my book since it's chunky and contains the juicy orange bits because it's not strained. I added some julienned peel strips, too. It's not a marmalade, which according to my research, should be only citrus juice and peel. Thick or thin peel is up to preference. It does get confusing, though, since some marmalades use the fruit part without detaching it from the pith and peel. Well...whatever i made came out fine.
I didn't find many recipes for blood orange things so i ended up winging it, using multiple jamming ideas from my past attempts. The gelling ended up fine since i boiled it ferociously. It tastes amazing: bitter and sour, punchy and bold, just a little bit sweet since i reduced the sugar majorly. Overall it's really good. The problem, however, is in the looks. The dark red color is beautiful but it's ruined by chunks and pips and bits of whitish pith. Now i totally understand why one strains the citrus!
Next attempt (using the additional 24 blood oranges i bought yesterday) i'll go back to Christine Ferber's 2 day marmalade recipe and strain that shit with some sour apple juice. I'll reduce the sugar but otherwise make it like i did the grapefruit.
'70s Dinner
Brown and orange soup next to my (newly acquired vintage) avocado green slow cooker. The 16 bean and barley soup came out much, much better than i expected!
Scurvy Prevention
We bought another 50+ blood oranges this week! (BTW the 10 for $1 tangerines at Iovine's are delicious. I forgot how intense a regular tangerine was compared to a sweet Clementine.)
A Citrus Weekend
1) Bought a copy of
Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber a few weeks ago. It's a really interesting book, organized by seasons and containing unusual combinations.
2) Grapefruit is all the sale rage; picked up three at
Iovine Brothers and five at Whole Foods.
2.5) We've also gone through three cases of clementines and countless lemons and limes!
3) Ran to Reading Terminal yesterday morning to check for blood oranges again. We've been checking every few days since the beginning of the year! HIT THE JACKPOT again at Iovine, 4 for $1.00. We load up on 20. Peeled and shared one on the walk out = so delicious and raspberry. Must go back for more...
4) Spent 2 days making the "Pink Grapefruit Jelly" recipe from
Mes Confitures. It's my 1st marmalade but overall 7th fruit conserve project*. This recipe involved multiple steps like making clear sour apple juice, poaching citrus rind strips in salt water and tying the seeds in a little bag for the extra pectin. The batch took a long time to set (much longer than the 10 minutes the recipe suggested) but it's a good honey-like consistency now. The marmalade is not overly bitter and has a sparkling sweetness. It's very clear with an orangey hue, with slivers of suspended rind. Overall it's good and i like it, but for batch #2 my changes would be as follows:
a) Find intensely delicious grapefruit. The ones i used were good but not amazing.
b) Use a little less sugar. Even though this marmalade is bittersweet, i think i would prefer it more bitter than sweet.
c) Boil it harder for less time. I should have maxed out on heat at a crazy boil instead of a regular boil.
d) Get a decent thermometer. The one i have is crap. Even though i'm getting the feel of when the gelling point is, it doesn't hurt to back it up with a thermometer and the freezer plate test.
5) Current plan: make blood orange jam or marmalade.
6) Future plans: strawberry jam, megaload black raspberry jam**, blackberry jam.
* For the record. In 2008 i made (in order): blueberry jam, blackberry jam, peach jam, black raspberry jam, peach jam #2, peach jam #3. In 2009 i've made: grapefruit marmalade.
** This is the best jam i've ever had. The berries were perfectly amazing and i'm going to
pick POUNDS this year.
Snapply Grause
This past Sunday i cleaned out the fridge. It's really scary what accumulates (and how it changes) in the darkness.
A few of the apples from our Fall 08 picking were still good n crisp but about a dozen of them were wrinkly and not so fresh. Applesauce seemed to make sense, so be chopped, cored and peeled the lot. Into a pot with a little water, he cooked them down and crushed the mass with the potato masher. Upon tasting it wasn't sweet enough, but the magic of a little cinnamon, ground ginger and nutmeg did wonders. No added sugar, chunky, delicious applesauce. The jar is almost done!
The Linux of Food
Check out this awesome article at
Restructure about Jennifer 8. Lee's video breaking it all down:
...Jennifer 8. Lee’s Italian friend was surprised to learn that fried gelato did not originate in China, and remarked, “It’s not? But they serve it at all the Chinese restaurants in Italy!” This incident illustrates the limitations of anecdotal experience as a source of knowledge... This incident also reveals that when the national culture is so pervasive, the cultural aspect of a practice that comes from the national culture is invisible to the ethnic majority. For example, White Italians do not see the Italian influence of fried gelato, only the perceived Chinese aspect of it. To Americans, however, the Italian influence of fried gelato is apparent, while fried gelato’s Chinese influence is not. Similarly, Americans generally do not see the American influence of General Tso’s Chicken, only the perceived Chinese aspect of it... The dish known in the United States as “General Tso’s Chicken” is 100% American...
I've read
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and loved it. Definitely check it out! (I saw the article first at
angryasianman and
Racialicious.)
