Marmalade Time

It's that time of year again when the Seville oranges appear in the fruit and veg shops all around the country.  The oranges are smaller, more irregular, sometimes blotchy green, thick skinned and not as shiny as the oranges we peel and eat.  They are also unbelievably bitter but they make the most tart, zingy marmalade you can imagine.  To be honest, I hate making marmalade but I love it: so every year at this time, I get on the phone to my mother to get me some oranges.  It's still difficult to get the oranges around here and she is usually getting some for herself anyway.  This year I have some in my freezer left over from last year.  You can freeze them and to be honest I have never noticed any difference in using frozen from fresh.

I have tried every type and available recipe over the years but the one I have settled on, with my modifications is Delia Smith's recipe for a long slow-cooked marmalade but I shorten the process as I don't like the colour too dark.  I also omit a lot of the peel as I prefer jelly to lumpy bits.  But, the beauty of any recipe is, as long as you don't interfere too much with the underlying principles then you can tailor it to your own taste. 

Her recipe is spread out over two days but I condense it into one as it is a palavar and I always want to get it over and done with.  But - the biggest bonus of all is making a marmalade cake with the left overs which won't quite fill your last jar.  This is the best cake ever and if you don't believe me then try it and let me know how you get on.

Delia Smith's (modified by me) recipe
1.35kg Seville marmalade oranges
2 lemons
5 pints of water (I use less as I can't fit that much in my pot)
2.7kg granulated sugar (I also use less usually 2kg of sugar to this quantity)


You need a preserving pan and some muslin.  First off you wash the fruit and put in your pan with the water and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, cover and leave the oranges to poach for about 3 hours or until they are soft.

                             Simmering the oranges to soften

Scoop the fruit out and allow to cool.  When cool, cut the oranges in half and scoop out the flesh and pips and place in a pan.  Add some of your poaching liquid and simmer for 10 minutes.  When cooled strain the contents of the saucepan into a sieve lined with muslin.  Allow to drip through and then when it is cool enough to handle catch it and wring it squeezing all the juice and liquid out.  Do this with a pair of gloves as it is very acidic and burns your hands.  It is also very therapeutic and you can imagine you are wringing someone's neck - bit like kneading bread!  You should be left with just spent pulp in your muslin which you can put in your compost heap.

                          Straining the pulp through muslin

Next slice up your skin for your "bits" the size and quantity is to your taste.  Add these slices into your poaching liquid and the stuff you squeezed out of the muslin.  Delia says to leave this overnight, but I just crack on.

Put the pot on a low heat and gradually bring up to just below boiling point and start to add your sugar.  Add your sugar gradually, stirring to dissolve.  Then when you are sure it has all dissolved bring to a rapid, rolling boil and set your timer.  This is the difficult bit.  After 15-20 minutes you need to test for a set.  Have a few saucers in the fridge chilling.  When you are testing turn the heat off under the pan as it is very easy to overshoot "setting point" and you will have to go for a "second set".  Spoon out a tablespoon of your marmalade onto a chilled saucer and put in the fridge for a few minutes.  Remove and run your finger through it - if it wrinkles then it is set, if not put heat on and re-test in another 5 minutes.  I have to say there is no fast way to do this and you just have to be patient.  It can take from 15-45 minutes!  Don't despair - it will set eventually.  Alternately use a thermometer but this just gives you an idea when the setting point is close and marmalade takes it's own time.

                     Setting point is 105C

When it is set, remove from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes,  then fill hot, sterilised jars.  See my post on jam making for other hints.

To make the marmalade cake use a basic Victoria sponge recipe and add a couple of tablespoons of marmalade.  Believe me it is really, really good.

Marmalade   Delia Smith  Seville Oranges  Marmalade Cake 

The French Bakery

I managed a French artisan bakery up until it went out of business due to the recession almost 3 years ago now.  To say it was artisan is almost an understatement.  Everything, and I mean everything was made from scratch and the viennoiserie (croissants and danish) were better than anything you could get in this country and to be fair, on a level with what you could get in France.  We had a team of French pastry chefs and bakers and they were a real eye-opener as well.  In my naivety I thought it was the Irish who had the reputation for being the alcoholics of Europe - that was until I met the French.  I would say that 70% plus of our staff had a drink problem.  However, that is a novel for another time!

We used very expensive ingredients including French flour, primarily Farine de Ble type 65 (wheat flour), but also siegle (rye).  We used all unsalted butter, whole eggs, cream and Belgian chocolate.  This, in addition to all products being handmade including the croissants, rolled by hand, made the product very expensive.  Obviously in the downturn many business cut back on their expensive supplies. We had problems with customers dragging their heels paying up and this in turn led us to not be able to pay our suppliers.  Every month was a nightmare, towards the end, trying to negotiate cheques from our accounts office in order to release supplies from suppliers who had our account on hold.  I had to continually juggle and also shop around for better prices which ended up taking up so much time, it began to take up a large part of everyday.

We operated 3 separate sections, bread, viennoiserie and dessert.  Breads included baguettes, Bretonne baguette, country bread, boule, couronne and brioche.  Viennoiserie was croissant, almond croissant, pain au chocolate, pain au raisin, fruit etoile, torsade and apple chausson.  Desserts were fresh fruit tarts with creme patissiere, lemon tart, chocolate tart, cheesecakes, mousses including feuillantine chocolate, opera, profiteroles (piece montee) and nicest of all La Religieuse.  And this list is only a fraction of what I can remember.

We supplied primarily Dublins' - 4 and 5 star hotels.  Some of the executive head chefs were the bain of my life but some were really great to work with as we often made desserts to order.   We also supplied cafes, restaurants and coffee shops.  Our delivery vans were on the road before 4am and most deliveries were completed by 10am.  The bakery operated 24/7 and we had 3 different shifts.  If I had occasion to go in at night to check something, it was like a whole other world.  A bright hive of activity with the most amazing smells wafting out.  There is nothing like the taste of a freshly glazed pain au raisin or a crusty baguette. 

When I travel now to France, which is several times a year lately, I still compare bakery goods with "ours" and very often they fail to live up to standards; as even in France they have started to cut back on the quality ingredients (butter in particular).  I can always taste the difference in croissant.  But sometimes you find a small bakery in a town that produces the same sort of amazing tastes we did.  And that is heaven and something the French really excel at.

One day I hope to sit down and write in more detail about the experience of managing the bakery and dealing with the French because, when I used to tell friends the stories, they all said you really should write a book.  The only problem is people reading it would think I had made it up!

The Real Reason People are Anti-Hunting

The furore that erupted over "that" photo of Rachel Allen today, prompted me to put forward my theory about the real reason people are anti-hunting and field sports.  I should say firstly that I hunted with the Meath Hunt for a good number of years as did both my children from quite an early age.  During that time I was able to observe the type of people who hunt in this country and the type of people who are vociferous in their opposition.  I have overheard some of the "antis" comments while they were demonstrating against the hunt and the vast majority were more against their perceived bias of the participants than any real empathy for the fox.

The people who hunted were from every walk of life - farmers, professionals, titled and manual workers.  Everyone who hunted had both a love of, and respect for the countryside.  Most were into hunting for the joy and freedom of galloping through fields and the excitement of clearing huge ditches, drains, stone walls, gates and barbed wire.  The feeling of being at one with your horse as he shivers in anticipation when the hunting horn is sounded.  I always remember my daughter's pony used to get so excited when we arrived at a hunt he was often in a sweat before he even got out of the horse box.  Every horse loves hunting with a passion.  I only ever "saw" one fox caught in all the years I hunted and I didn't even witness the actual killing as the hounds caught him in gorse bushes.  In contrast I have seen hundreds of foxes killed on the roads.  I have seen foxes lead hounds on a right merry dance as one sauntered up one side of a ditch with the hounds in full cry on the other side hunting in the wrong direction.

The anti-hunt lobby have been vocal at their perceived cruelty of hunting.  However the fox is classified as vermin and therefore the population must be controlled.  The fox is a natural predator as are the dogs that chase him.  The people who hunt are not a rabid, bloodthirsty mob.  I never met one person who expressed a wish to see any fox killed while on a hunt.  The only sentiment ever expressed was that we got a good chase which led us over decent country (by country they meant good jumping).

The hunt members are very far removed from the idle-rich landed gentry with their nose-in-the-air.  They are, for the most part decent, hard-working people who love horses and animal and outdoor pursuits.  They are considerate of road users, land owners and each other.

I have always wondered why the anti-hunt lobby don't turn their energy into doing some good for animal welfare and employ their energies against intensive, factory-farming which inflicts real cruelty on animals.  Intensively farmed animals in this country have probably the worst life imaginable.  Instead they concentrate their energy on an animal that has for the most part a natural, wild life and against the people they perceive to be something that they are not.

                  Myself and my daughter hunting St. Stephen's Day, Kells, 1999

Fox Hunting   Meath Hunt  Rachel Allen  Anti Hunt Lobby  Fox and Hound