How to make the perfect marmalade
September, it’s time for jams, fruit is abundant and it is the perfect moment to transform it in marmalades and jams to be preserved all the winter around, when the choice of fresh fruit and vegetable decreased. So, it’s high time for tomato puree, vegetables in oil and tons of fruit transformed into marmalades!
If you want to put yourself to the test preparing jams or if you want to change your recipes, follow our advice and try this tasty pairings.
Five rules for a perfect marmalade:
- The most important thing is the raw material! Pay a visit to farmers and fruit and vegetable markets buying fruit in crates, paying attention to the ripening: avoid the unripe fruit but also overripe fruits which are darkening and flaking apart, they could ruin all your work. Choose seasonal fruit: figs, pears, plums and apricots. Fruit has to be ripe but not macerated.
- Jam, not jelly! Do you know that jelly effect of many industrial marmalades? Avoid it dosing perfectly the pectin, the commonly used agent to gel. Do not use the same quantity for all the fruits: plums and apples do not need additional pectin, or just a little bit. For the watery fruits you can give density to your jam adding apple or apple juice (with the function of sweetener as well).
- For a caramelized touch: in all the jams is normally used white sugar, but if you want to give a caramelized touch prefer brown sugar. With the sweetest fruits use Muscovado, with an aftertaste of liquorice and caramel. Another trick is to caramelize sugar with a drop of alcohol, like Grappa, before mixing it with the fruit.
- The right consistency, neither a jelly, nor a juice! To verify if it is ready put a spoon of hot marmalade on a cold dish and tilt it: marmalade hasn’t to slip, but strain slowly.
- Are you tired of the same marmalades? Try the following recipes, we are going to purpose you unique pairings and the use of spices.
3 extravagant recipes of jams
Pears, rum, raisin and oriental spices
Give a touch of taste to the pear jam: cut 1kg of pears, mix with 200gr of sugar, a crumbled cinnamon bean and three berries of cardamom. After an hour boil it with a glass of rum and the juice of a half lemon, at half of the cooking time blend the raisin, earlier put in rum and warm water.
Figs, oranges and cocoa
Place in a pot 1kg of figs, 300gr of brown sugar, abundant orange peel and an abundant spoon of dark cocoa. Cook until the consistency is thick and add, at the end of the cooking time, once cooled down, dark cocoa in pieces.
Courgettes and ginger
Who said that marmalade is only sweet? Try this courgettes marmalade to serve with cheeses or crackers. Dice 1kg of courgettes, after having peeled them and removed the seeds. Mix 150 gr of sugar, a grated lemon zest and a piece of smashed ginger. Leave to cool it for an hour then cook over a low flame for an hour, until the cooking is complete.
