Our 4 year old baby orange tree gave us 60 nice size navel oranges for the first time

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karennoca

Well-known member
so I now have all these oranges. Went online to see what I could do with some of them and settled on orange marmalade. Spent two hours looking over recipes, and comments. Many were so work intensive, had to zest, cut into strips, do the water bath method, until I looked at Ina Gartens recipe for marmalade. Oranges and lemons are cut into half moons, very thin, cooked in water, add sugar and let sit overnight. Tomorrow I bring up to a certain temp at a boil, then put into hot mason jars and seal. That's it. So I am half way through the process. Hope I picked a good recipe, you know Ina, she is famous for easy recipes, and this is my first time with marmalade. Any marmalade makers out there, if you have comments, I'd appreciate any of them.

 
You could make candied orange peel also--and then dip in

chocolate.
If you are just using the peels/zest, juice the oranges and freeze the juice?

 
I'm only making 4 pints of marmalade... for now, Also orange chicken.

we will need to freeze some of the juice and zest.

 
The recipe sounds interesting! (And pretty, I bet!~) Would love to know your thoughts on how

it comes out! I like that it is in stages.

 
60 oranges! That is alot! If you have any leftover; I made a really fun recipe last summer;

unfortunately, I do not have a recipe. I replicated something served to dh at an italian restaurant in NY. I believe it was called citrus shrimp with prosciutto. It was so good. I spoke with the waiter, and they described how they had wrapped the shrimp in prosciutto; dredge in flour; cook in olive oil; make a sauce of garlic, onions, fresh OJ juice / jest. dh's was served over an orzo w/ the sauce. They also had caramelized orange segments (or grilled). around the dish. (I did not do that at home...., but if you have oranges! : )

It was quite yummy!!!

Have fun w/ your oranges!

 
Marmalade is done..(I hope). It did not get to 220

it was about 208° more on the dark amber side and I noticed one or two of the orange peels were starting to burn. I took them out, they tasted great. I took out a bit of the marmalade, put it on a small plate and then into the fridge. After it had cooled down a little, I checked it and it did not run on the plate when tipped, nor was it too hard. Since my candy thermometer is very old, and had not been used in a long time, I was uncertain if it was correct because there was a separated red mark that was separated from the main red mark, that was up at the hard ball stage.
I put them into hot mason jars and sealed with hot lids. My first time with marmalade, so hoping for the best.
It tastes very good. I just went into the kitchen and checked the jars, and the ones I packed first have thickend up a bit...I assume as they cool the marmalade becomes thicker or set?

 
They probably will, but marmalade is also very good not

completely "set" like a jelly, IMO. Sounds good.
Another test for gelling is to dip your spoon in the liquid and let it drip off the side of the spoon (I use a wooden one). The test for the gelling is when the drips don't come off individually but sort of join on the edge and then drop off. Once you have seen it you will really enjoy using it as your test. There is probably an image online somewhere. ;o)

 
My dh determined that the candy thermometer was indeed broken. This morning I used some of the

marmalade and it did taste very good but was a bit too set up for spreading well. The heat from the English muffin softened it a bit and I was able to spread it ok. So. will be picking up a new gadget this week and perhaps make another batch. I could not taste the lemon in this batch, so may add one more lemon.
By the way, what happened to Thomas's English Muffins? I have not had them in many years, but saw them in the store last week and bought a package. They used to be thick, fluffy, and very tasty. These were much thinner, certainly not fluffy with all the nooks and cranies, (as they advertise) and virtually no taste whatsoever.

 
Agreed re: the muffins; need to use a fork to get better cranies (vs. a knife). Somewhere on site

there is a recipe for english muffins (Or muffin bread?) I can't recall. But I do remember that it was tried and enjoyed by a few. I will see if I can find it in "search"

 
Thomas's has so many different varieties now, I have to look very carefully to make sure I am buying

the "regular" ones, and not some variation or "limited edition" flavors.

 
Is it a Washington Navel? We had the best orange tree

in San Diego. It has spoiled us for any others.

 
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