Heather and I are about out of orange marmalade so I'd better make some! If you've never made marmalade the old-fashioned way, it's fairly time-consuming. Peeling the oranges, trimming some of the white from inside the peels, then slicing those peels into the tiniest slivers possible. Adding the lemon slices, cutting up the orange pulp, adding water and setting aside for 12-18 hours.
Then cooking for an hour or so to tenderize the peels, adding the sugar and cooking to the jellying point. Bottling, capping, setting aside to cool. Only sometimes, like yesterday, the marmalade, in spite of testing well for its jell, didn't set as firmly as I wanted.
Soooooo, I decided to re-cook the batch, nothing I haven't done before, although certainly a pain in the patootie! Empty the bottles, wash and sterilize them again while the marmalade comes back up to a boil. All was going very nicely to this point, when...
I glanced at the tv and saw the USA-Canada hockey game head into overtime. Mesmerized, and I have to admit, rooting for Canada, I watched the final seven minutes and forty seconds. I didn't want the USA to lose, but I really wanted Canada to win... you know?
YES! Canada won!
Yup, scorched the marmalade. I'll start over tomorrow.
Mary
March 1, 2010
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