Thursday, May 07, 2009

Mandarin Whisky Marmalade

Every year our small mandarin trees supply us with just enough fruit to eat but never in excess that we have to think of plan B. This year even though only one of the trees bore fruit, it was a good heavy crop. Time to try our hand at making marmalade.

Mr Redneck is the marmalade eater and he has declared this jam to be 'Good '. Man of few words ! A delicious spread on toast. Love the tang and bitter sweet taste of the marmalade. The mandarins from our tree are seedless and this conserve will set without pectin.

My pantry is bulging at the moment with preserves, relishes, chutneys, jams, jellies all made from homegrown produce squirrelled away to be eaten in the coming months.

Homemade mandarin marmalade
Makes 5-6 cups

Ingredients
2kg mandarins
800g-1kg sugar
3 cups water
2 Tbsp whisky/brandy
1 lemon, juice and peel


Method
1. Peel mandarins and remove seeds, if any. Discard half the skins.

2. Blend the mandarins in a blender.

3. Finely slice the mandarin skin and lemon peel.

4. Add blended mandarins, sliced skins, lemon juice, lemon peel, sugar and water into a thick base pot. Over medium heat, stir gently until sugar is dissolved.

5. Turn the heat up and bring to a rolling boil (uncovered) for about 45-60 minutes or until the mix reach setting point*. Give it an occassional stir. Taste and add more sugar if required. Taste and sweetness will intensify as it thickens.

6. Stir in whisky or brandy.

7. Pour into sterilised jars, seal, label and store in a cool place.

Consistency of mandarin whisky marmalade
Note
1. I do not like my jam overly sweet. 800gm was the right sweetness for us.
2. Do not double the recipe. It will take too long and might not set.

Tip
1. It is easier to peel mandarins by cutting in half first.
2. If your mandarins are not the seedless variety, remove the peel and seeds by cutting the fruit horizontally.

Seedless mandarin
Sterilising jars
To sterilise the preserving jars wash them in hot soapy water. Remove and put the glass jars into an oven at 120°C for 15 minutes or until the jars are required. Place the lids in a pot of hot boiling water. Do not at any stage dry the jars with a tea towel.

easy mandarin marmalade without pectin
Setting Point Test
Place saucer in freezer to chill. To test for the setting point of jam, place a teaspoon of jam on the chilled saucer. A skin will form on the surface and the jam will wrinkle when pushed with your finger when setting point is reached.

mandarin marmalade with added whisky
Recipe : Australian Woman's weekly, ninemsn (adapted)

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for this recipe! I am a great fan of orange marmalade but have never had mandarin marmalade before. I live in the US and unfortunately the manadarin season is over. But there's still lots of oranges here. Would this same recipe work for oranges too? I am referring to the seedless navel orange variety that has a fairly thick skin.

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  2. Hi Lee Chuah,

    I don't know if this recipe will work with oranges, not having tried it myself.

    From what I have read the making of orange marmalade seems to be a bit more complicated.

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  3. This looks exactly like something I'd adore. Wow.

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  4. T C Photographer, Thanks.

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  5. Hi Sinner,

    I found you.....hehe (sounds like a stalker, huh?). How have you been doing? It's been such a long time since we chatted. Ever since you don't log into KC anymore, thought I'd never 'see' you again.

    I see you have started a lovely blog here. Mmmm..so much drool-worthy food.

    Btw, is this mandarin the ones we have during CNY? In the photos, they look small enough to be kumquats.

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  6. Hi Alannia,

    You are more than welcome to stalk me here anytime. haha I am still very much alive and kicking.

    Yes, they are the same mandarins though might be a different variety.

    The ones you see in the photos are actually the smallest of my mandarins. All the bigger ones (double the size) were used up for the marmalade.

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  7. I'm wondering why such a small quantity of whiskey?

    I made a pineapple-lemon marmalade and used quite a lot (um, 1/2 cup) of spiced rum. It turned out ok, but will i be poisoned sometime soon?

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  8. Meadowlark,

    We wanted the whiskey taste to be subtle and not too overpowering.

    You obviously like your rum ! We do like to add heaps of alcohol to make our ice cream though :)

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  9. I just tried to make this recipe and ended up pretty much with great tasting hard candy, er, any advice?
    http://marissatunon.wordpress.com

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  10. Hi, you have overboiled the jam.

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  11. How long will this last in an unopened jar? Does it need to remain refrigerated, or can I mail it?

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  12. If the jars are properly sterilised and sealed, it should last a couple of months.

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