Marmalady of the Night
Marmalade is downright unapologetic. If marmalade were a person, she would be flying past you in a cab as you’re about to descend into the train station; she doesn’t pause to wonder what it’s like to carry four monstrous grocery bags home on the subway. Marmalade is luxury at its best.
For all her high-maintenance appearances, marmalade is probably one of the easiest things for a first-time sweets canner to do. It is downright impossible to fuck up marmalade, that is, unless you cook it to death, against which your cell phone clock/timer will valiantly buffer. Marmalade doesn’t roll like the shower faucet, which as Eddie Izzard describes, is like a fine balance between “here aaaaaand here [never moving his hands], a quarter of a millimeter between fantastically hot and fucking freezing.” Nope, marmalade in the making is rather easy going.
To be completely honest, I hadn’t even tasted marmalade until I made it as my stash of Christmas gifts this past year. It’s a grandma thing, which is actually what inspired me to do it. My Grandma Jinny in Minnesota told me how she likes orange marmalade the best of all jams and jellies. Grandma challenge!
All this said, I’m going to need a separate post—I’m dreaming of working with a videographer to make a demo film—to show you some of the not-so-stressful, but can-be-intimidating-at-first things about canning. Like, for instance, sterilizing a jar: not hard if you’ve ever washed a dish by hand or boiled water before. Even easier if you have a dishwasher (unlike me.) Canning, like the oeuvre of happy home-making in general, literally boils down to common sense and paying attention. So, newbies, please stay tuned for some sort of demo, either photo or video.
Without further ado, please meet my Tigress Can Jam creation of the month:
Marmalady of the Night (citrus carrot ch-armalade—chutney/marm straddler). I just love the Tigress’ naming debate for a similar kind of straddler in this post. When Doris & Jilly announced the befuddling ingredient of the month: CARROT, I leaned toward doing another marmalade because I’m new to this, and citrus is still floating through the air, and I haven’t pickled anything yet, so no matter how easy it may be, I’m a little overloaded with projects and work-like things to learn something new at this moment. Plus, there are just so many ways to spruce up a marm (and I know I can’t go wrong!)
Marmalady of the Night Recipe
adapted from Mary Anne Dragan’s Carrot Marmalade Recipe, kindly shared by Talia at innBrooklyn
This charmalade is an evening, cocktail affair. This vibrant orange, sweetly savory mixture makes me want to dress up, make martinis and have friends over for hors d’ oeuvres. I’m thinking cracker with sharp or stinky cheese topped with a dollop of this orange mayhem. Or spruce up a chicken or pork dish with it. Or brazenly eat it on toast in the morning, whatevs.
Step 1: Gather your ingredients. You’ll need:
1 pomelo or grapefruit
2 large or 3 small Meyer lemons
a bunch o’ carrots (I had a bundle—approx 10 skinny small—of multi-colored carrots and 3 large orange ones)
3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coriander (or spice(s) of choice!)
Step 2: Prepare the carrots and citrus
Peel ‘em
citrus massacrePomelo prep: halve it. juice it. remove any escapist seeds, throw in some of the good pulp from the juice strainer thing.
Meyer lemon prep: halve ‘em. juice them. scrape out as much pith and such from 4 of the rind halves (continue to scrape on the juicer). Chop or food process the empty rinds.
The best $80 I’ve ever spent on Craigslist: CUISINART.Carrot prep: grate by hand on the large side of your grater. OR two words: FOOD PROCESSOR. I’ve upgraded to a rockstar machine and haven’t been happier with an appliance (well, perhaps aside from my free bread machine.)
I ended up with 6 cups of carrot/citrus pulp (4 cups carrot, 2 cups citrus.) The cool thing about marmalade is that you can use whatever combination/prep type for the citrus here. i.e. you can relax about recipe-following in canning for the first time!
Step 3: Throw carrot/citrus pulp in your heaviest-bottom stockpot/pan (copper bottom if you’ve got it.) Add sugar, salt and coriander. Let sit for an hour (while you clean up the prep mess and sterilize your jars.)
At this point, taste the mix. Add more coriander, or use a different spice entirely. Your first taste of your creation should not be upon popping open a sealed jar! Spice combinations are flexible, sugar ratio is arguably flexible, just don’t cut down the citrus ratio with such a low acidity food as carrots. Carrots (without citrus) usually have to be pressure canned for safety in preservation.
I thought cayenne first, then fennel. Didn’t end up liking either!
Step 4: Put on a pair of comfortable shoes (yes, I’m serious, not just evoking lesbian humor.) Bring mix to a boil over medium heat, stirring every few minutes to incorporate all ingredients. Once boiling, reduce heat to med-low and cook at a rapid boil for 30 min. FYI, when you stir, it will calm the boil; don’t worry about that. The catch at this step is that you’ve gotta stick near the pot, stirring pretty consistently—especially if you’re using a cheaper pot (not copper bottomed)—so you don’t burn the sugar. (See why the shoes will come in handy?)
Step 5: Remove from heat. Ladle mixture into hot jars (hot just means still hot from being sterilized in boiling water, in your canner pot.) Wipe rims clean of any wayward, sticky goo with a clean cloth. Place prepared lids (which are warmed on stove in small saucepan of water, not boiled) on jars and screw bands on finger-tight (closed tightly but not so much that you’ll need to phone a friend to open it.) Put jars in your canner.
Step 6: Start the timer (and process) for 10 minutes when your canner pot reaches a rapid boil.
In retrospect, I wish I’d have used more purple carrots, the measly one I had sort of faded into the orange-y hues of this mixture. I’d love opinions on further sugar reduction here; though the mix was rather thick with carrots, I think so long as they’re simply coated with the syrup it’d be okay. Dropping the sugar a tad more might help make it more of a savory, true citrus chutney.
Canning, Fruit, Preserved Foods: Sweet, Recipes
Reader Comments (13)
I'm going to be making this for this month's challenge too! My recipe is from Ball Blue Book.
Fantastic post with a fantasticaly named product! I actually have my post mostly finished...but am waiting until the 'perfect' name pops in to my head. 'Cuz spicy carrot relish....well, sounds so ordinary....and trust me, it is frickin' fabulous.
Love Eddie Izzard. L-O-V-E. Hence, love the reference. I'd love to pop over for some sharp cheese, orange marmalady & martinis. Wearing my comfortable shoes. =)
Thanks!
This marmalade looks really yummy. I also leaned toward the sweet side for this month's challenge. I made the carrot cake jam from the Ball Book and a Persian carrot jam. In the first one, I drastically cut down on the sugar: instead of 6 1/2 cups I used 3. And next time I would reduce it to 2 cups, I think. Check out my posts...
Hi - checking out your can jam recipe....looks good - I am surprised there's no lemon juice in it, you've got a lot of carrot in there. Check out the carrot daikon pickle I made:
http://motherskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/vietnamese-carrot-and-daikon-pickle.html
Wendy and Andrea: I can't wait to check out your sweets, sweets! I was tempted by the carrot cake jam recipe, but ended up going really basic. Looking forward to both your posts.
Meg: Oh, I do wish we lived closer and could have a marmaladies night!!! Alas, I'll lust after spicy carrot relish in my comfortable shoes :)
MK: I'll definitely check out that pickle of yours. We eat daikon all the time, we love us some fancy radish! My recipe does have lemon juice, perhaps you missed the part about juicing 2-3 Meyer lemons, and mincing 2 whole lemon rinds?
I'm so glad the recipe was useful . I really like that book, its not too fussy and has a ton of recipes (four with carrots!!) Your marmalady looks delicious and I'm like your serving suggestions -- anything good with a cocktail is good by me!
Talia, I think our jar swap will have to include cocktails and carrot-y excitement. :)
Great post with some very funny lines. It is always good to have a laugh over your marmalade. Having just returned from the Marmalade Festival in Penrith, UK (the north west of England) where there were over 600 entries, makes you realise that for some it is no laughing matter! Now must get my canjam hat on, 3 days in hand. Thankfully I'm a deadline person!
Yum! Maybe now I'll make a marmalady of the night, instead of chutney. Or, who knows? Maybe both! Carrots and coriander, well, you know how I feel about that. And yes, the cuisinart is the shizz. I have a lesser model these days, alas and alack, it doth not chop as well.
Gloria! I'm so jealous Marm Fest!! The English get to have all the fun (I'm a Brit at heart). I just saw Julia post about some pics on Twitter, can't wait to check them out on your blog.
Julia, that last sentence of your response almost made me fall off the couch. You do know the way to a literary girl's heart, ye olde English :) I'm itchin' to come upstate and see what the rest of this funny shaped state has to offer. Amy's accolades and your blog posts are making my weekend getaway plans feel urgent!
So urgent! If you make a trip, you must come for tea or jelly toddy! We'll walk the grounds and eat charmalade and cheese. Sounds grand, doesn't it?
Wow - this looks delicious, and I never knew it had carrot in it!
I've only tried making my own jelly once (I know, not marmalade, but whatevs), using Concord grapes grown in my back yard when I lived in Portland, Oregon. I was surprised by how easy it was, and how delicious and natural the end product was.
Good job & keep up the good work...I'm entering the contest, and that kid BETTER pick my number! :-D
Joe, I'm dying to make grape jelly! Portland is quite the place for growing and eating amazing things; I have some friends there with a massive backyard garden. Love it. See you in the sweepstakes! :)