Kurma

The Two Brothers Potter, aka my grandchildren Sebastian and Toby.

'Priori Incantatum!'

While shopping last week, I noticed some seville oranges in my local gourmet fruit shop. These are famous bitter oranges that lend themselves perfectly to authentic marmalade making. I purchased six.

The most marvellous thing about marmalade making is the amazingly large yield. I started with two seville oranges, that weighed 250 grams each. I first quartered the oranges and removed the pips. I chopped the oranges roughly and threw them in a food processor, along with one medium-sized de-pipped chopped lemon, shredding them all finely. I deposited this fruit pulp in a large bowl.

I took the remaining seville oranges that I had bought and juiced them. I added two cups of orange juice to the pulp, along with four cups of water. I placed all the orange and lemon pips into the soaking pulp also. I left the bowl sitting overnight, though the recipe did not specify doing that.

Next morning I poured this pulpy mass and all the liquid into a large saucepan, and placed it on full heat.

I brought the mixture to the boil, reduced it to a simmer and cooked it for one hour with a tightly-fitted lid. This is the first stage of marmalade making: softening the fruit. As it softens, the pectin content from the fruit pips and lemon pulp is introduced into the mixture. This natural pectin is what will eventually set the jam.

After one hour, I checked the pulp; it was very soft. Now came the most important part. I added 1.5kg of sugar to the simmering softened pulp. I used raw sugar, which works very well.

I turned up the heat to full, stirred the sugar and pulp mixture as it returned to full boil, then left it boiling hard for 25 minutes on full heat, without stirring.

After 25 minutes the marmalade looked dark and jammy. To test whether it was ready, I took a teaspoonful of mixture and placed it on a small plate that had been chilling in the freezer. I popped it back in the freezer and left it for one minute.

This is a critical step. If the marmalade overcooks it will be very dense and firm. If it needs more cooking, the end result will be runny. At this stage you must decide whether to keep the marmalade on the heat for a little while longer, or remove it. It can be tricky to tell because it is still a molten liquid. And remember - in marmalade cooking there is only about a 5-minute window between a runny end-result and something which will be too heavy or crystallised.

I took out the cold plate and pushed my finger gently through the marmalade sample. It left little wrinkles in its wake. This was a sign that the marmalade was done. Off the heat!

I had sterilized and heated some glass jars as well as their metal lids in the oven, and they were hot and ready.

After taking the marmalade off the heat, and allowing it to cool a little for 10 minutes, I poured it through a large funnel and filled my jars. Look how much marmalade I made from 2 oranges, 1 lemon, 2 cups of orange juice, 4 cups of water and 1.5kg sugar - 3.2kg of marmalade!! Those large jars weigh 1.2 kg, (over 4.5 pounds) including the jar-weight.

And that's the marmalade above, after setting and cooling in the jars with tight lids for an hour or two. It has a wonderfully intense bitter/sweetness, and vastly better than any shop-bought product. Time to pop on the toast.

Jackie from Florida wrote:

"There are so many different types of sugar showing themselves in the bulk section: sucanat, evaporated cane juice, fructose, raw, etc. I'm confused. What is the difference? Are some better than others?"

I replied:

"Sucanat and evaporated cane juice are not commonly available in Australia, at least by those names, so I cannot exactly say what they are best for, and how they differ from raw sugar, my favourite. Allow me to hand this question to Devadeva, a very wise and kitchen-savvy fellow blogger who also lives in Florida."

I did in fact refer Jackie's question to Devadeva, who sent this excellent reply:

"Hare Krishna Jackie! Your question is really a good one. Basically, the darker the sugar, the more unprocessed it is and the better it is for you. it contains more of the natural molasses, and therefore is more nutritious. The darker sugars, in my opinion, are less addictive, more satisfying and more wholesome tasting. That being said, they do impart a certain earthy color to what you are making and have a distinctivd flavor which is more pronounced the darker you go.

Some people really do not enjoy the taste/results of natural sweeteners because they are so accustomed to life with white sugar. But as you can see with most dietary changes, there may be a slight adjustment period for the tongue; however the tongue is very adaptable and open to change. Especially if that change is towards whole foods. Your body will thank you for it.

So here is a brief run down on those sugars.:

Sucanat is a made up term which stands for SUgar CAne NATural. So basically this is your purest sugar, most closely resembling it's source of origin in nature: sugar cane. It is almost always sold under the brand Wholesome Sweeteners (as most natural sugars are in the US) and if you follow this link you can read about the good stuff retained by the minimal processing, which includes iron, calcium and other minerals and vitamins.

It is by far my favorite sweetener, although I don't use it for everything. I definitely use it whenever brown sugar is called for, such as peanut butter cookies gingersnaps and barbecue sauce. The granules are very large and round but it is a soft, moist feeling sugar.

Turbinado, raw sugar and demerera sugar are essentially the same thing, with slight variations attributable to the place of origin and processing. These sugars are also minimally processed, although more so than sucanat. They retain molasses so are also more nutritious than white sugar. These sugars are have large, tannish brown crystals and can be used for all cooking and baking, although it may take a while for their crystals to dissolve.

Because of this, some people prefer not to use them in cakes, where creaming the butter and sugar together is an important process. These sugars also lend an earthier color to things and impart an ever so slight wholesome flavor. They are to be used measure for measure to substitute white sugar, although you will probably end up using less because the surface area of the crystals is greater with this natural sugar.

Evaporated cane juice is a natural sweetener which has been clarified and purified to give it a lighter color. It has not been chemically processed or bleached with animal bones. It does retain molasses and is the color and consistency of beach sand, however, it is the least nutritious of all the sugars mentioned. That being said, it is the most versatile. It behaves just like white sugar, except it is totally natural. It is great in baking, cooking, for preparing drinks or in jam making. It would adulterate the color of your final product and tastes just like sugar cane juice. How bad can that be!

Fructose is not good. Stay away from fructose. While although it has a low glycemic index, it is white white white and therefore should be avoided like cheddar cheese on pizza. Apparently it is metabolized differently than other sweeteners and studies with lab mice have found that fructose will make you fat (so lets subsidize it!!!). For lots of info on fructose, most of which you need a Phd in science to understand, visit this Wikipedia link.

Other sweeteners line the shelves of health food stores and even the natural foods section in chain supermarkets. Agave nectar is now being touted for its low glycemic index and is becoming very popular. It is able to boast a low glycemic index because it is 90% fructose.

There is a lot of info available online and what sweetener you choose to go with is really a personal decision based on what is important to you. And although buying from the bulk bins is cheaper than getting a small pre-packaged bag of Wholesome Sweetener sugar, it still is expensive. If you can special order a 50lb bag from your favorite shop, you will save a good amount on sugar and the stores usually give an additional 10% off quantity orders.

If you don't have the space to hoard a 50lb bag, you can always split it up with some friends. This is just my suggestion because in my house, even without jam making, we go through a lot of sugar. I personally like to have sucanat, evaporated cane juice and turbinado all on hand. Hope this is helpful. Devadeva dasi"

(A good answer, don't you think? Devadeva already published the letter on her blog, but she doesn't mind me reproducing it here, since I was the original refer-ee.)