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This week there is much to do in the kitchen. With citrus season fully underway, it’s marmalade time. Chef Becky started making marmalade for Frog Hollow ten years ago. It’s her favorite fruit preserve. The combination of bitter and sweet along with the tangy chewiness of the peel are truly divine.
Most marmalade is made using what’s called the whole fruit method. This process is pretty straightforward; cut up the raw fruit, cook it in water and add an equal amount of sugar to fruit. But, this process yields a cloudy marmalade, which is much less appetizing to the eye. As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve ever sampled one of our marmalades, they have a lovely clear jelly with suspended pieces of brightly colored, sparkling peel.
We accomplish this by using an alternative, and you guessed it, much more labor intensive method called the cut fruit method. This means we start by separating the peel from pith. The pith is the white material that lines the inside of the peel. This initial process is very time consuming. Then we slice and juice the raw oranges and chop the remaining peel. We cook the peel with sugar, juice and some water. The pith is cooked separately in a cheesecloth sack. This make it less bitter and creates the big chunks of candied peel.
Our first marmalade was Navel Orange. Since then we’ve expanded our varieties to include Meyer Lemon, Blood Orange Strawberry and as of last year, Seville and Bergamot. Our Blood Orange, Seville and Bergamot varieties are all limited batches, with just a few hundred jars made each season. This week, we’re working on a batch of Blood Orange Strawberry. And in the coming weeks, we’ll get to work on the Seville and Bergamot varieties. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on how you can pick up a few jars of your own!
