Making marmalade

Post date: 09-Nov-2014 02:12:52

I first made lime marmalade last year when I had an abundance of limes and came across this recipe from Master Chef's Matt Preston. It looked so easy, and it was! Chuffed by how quickly and easily the marmalade set, I was hooked and made a few few more batches during the season. Now, how to improve my marmalade: make the rind softer and reduce the bitterness.

Last night, I made my first batch with this seasons limes.

This time I used Delia Smith's Lemon and lime marmalade recipe (minus lemons), hoping that by cooking some of the pith in muslin and discarding it after extracting the pectin from it would help reduce the bitterness. Unfortunately, once again while I didn't have any problems getting the marmalade to set, it is still a bit too bitter for my taste and the rind is tough and chewy. I have to confess, I didn't cook the rind for two hours as the recipe said, but only for an hour... but it soft before I added the sugar.

I know marmalade is supposed to be bitter, but for my taste, I would prefer it to be slightly less bitter. Is there a way to tone down the bitterness and not have tough, leather-like rind?

What I've already tried:

    • pressure cooking the limes first - this didn't make the rind any softer and seemed to increase the bitterness

    • blanching the whole limes first

    • slicing the whole limes (without juicing first and then slicing the rind)

    • juicing the limes and soaking the peel in water in the fridge overnight

Suggested tips (from online forums, blogs and articles):

    • discarding the peel altogether and only using the flesh, but would this cause problems with the setting as most of the pectin is in the bitter pith, or is there enough pectin in the fruit itself to set the marmalade?

    • cooking the rind separately in some bicarbonate soda added to the water

    • adding other fruit to counter the bitterness of citrus (but I want a lime only marmalade!)

I will try some of the solutions offered above and see if any make a difference. Or maybe, I just have to accept that marmalade will always be bitter!

References

Lime marmalade