今年は助っ人が一名来てくれて、最後の煮詰めから仕上がりの判断はお任せしちゃいました。2枚目の写真はその前日スライスしたオレンジをひたひたの水につけて一日寝かせるのですが、翌日鍋の蓋を開けるとオレンジの香りが部屋中に広がり、マーマレード作りをしていてそれが最高に幸せを感じる気持ちの良い瞬間です。
程よくゲル状に仕上がったマーマレードを煮沸した空き瓶に詰めて、半分は助っ人のおみやげにしました。今回はキビ糖を使った自然派バージョン。砂糖の量は巷のレシピを読むとオレンジ1キロに700gくらい使うのが一般的のようですが、この1:0.7の比率は見ただけで恐怖です。オレンジを食べているのか、砂糖を食べているのか訳が分かりません。今年はきっちり半分の350gで作りましたが、充分な甘さがあります。
中央の瓶は乱切りにしたオレンジを煮詰めて皮をしっかり残したバージョンで、これも家族に好評です。
I managed to get a carton of Valencia oranges this year. Well, actually the speed of their growth was rather slow and it was close to June end when I received the 5-kilogram box. Tangerin farmers in Ehime continue to suffer in recent years because the climate of our islands fundamentally changed. There were noticeably green oranges in the box, but their taste was equally good.
I received a friend of mine for help this year, and I actually left her the process of boiling down and deciding when to stop. The second photo shows the day before when slices of oranges were soaked in the water and rest minimum 12 hours. As you open the lid the next day, the orange flavor spreads out in the entire room, which is truly the most happy moment in making marmalade for yourself.
Packing the finished marmalade gel in the boiled empty preserver glasses, half of them served as the souvenir for the helper. We used millet sugar this time and made naturalist’s marmalade. Many available recipes generally instruct to use 700 grams of sugar for 1 kilo of oranges, and this ratio by itself totally horrifies me as I cannot distinguish whether I taste the orange or the sugar! We cut a half, and 350 grams of sugar guarantees sufficiently sweet marmalade.
