Orange Peel Jam

This jam took more than three days to prepare. THREE DAYS! I will always be an advocate for slow food, but this... this tested every bit of patience I had. Of course that's a slight exaggeration as anyone who knows me, knows I would never really lose my patience where food is concerned. Food — my one true love. 

This recipe is from the early 20^th century, (although it's highly probable it's from much earlier than then, but I am not making guesses about where my forenannas got their recipes from, I only have the recipe books from two generations ago), and is an excellent example of life lived during a time when very little was wasted. You have orange peel left over from your mid-winter fruit snack? May I suggest Orange Peel Jam! Tasty and economical. Tastenomical.

Like previous efforts, I had to work with a pretty vague set of instructions — there was nothing listed about how long to cook the jam for at the end of the two days for example — consequently I felt like I was making things up as I went along. The original instructions just happened to mention including 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of pulp, at the very end of the recipe. What pulp? I had only included the orange peel, and none of the pulp! I hazarded a guess and thought perhaps it referred to the jam mixture during cooking. On the second day of preparation, the gooey soft consistency of the jam looked and felt like 'pulp', so I measured that out and added the 1:1 measurement of sugar (my teeth ache at the memory of seeing all that sugar being poured into the pot). It took a lot and a lot of simmering, but eventually the setting point was reached. It was also at this point that I discovered I had forgotten to remove the lemon seeds. Scooping as many of the seeds out of boiling hot syrupy mixture added pointless minutes to my evening's work. Pointless. Minutes. Lucky I was drinking my (currently) second favourite beer and that made the time pass by quite pleasantly. The beer did however, play havoc with my taste buds, which meant as I was tasting the jam throughout the cooking process, I was becoming convinced it tasted like bitter, dusty garbage. No really, that's what a rye porter will do to the taste of Orange Peel Jam (or marmalade, as it should really be called). Jamarmalade. I was convinced I was going to be accused of trying to poison my friends by making them taste this. This morning though, as I had this on toasted muffins with a dollop of cream, I was very greatly relieved to find that the jam tastes okay. More than okay. My Nannas have done it again, and given me something that tastes great.   

Orange Peel Jam

1 cup of orange peel, finely chopped

1 medium sized lemon

3 cups water

4 cups sugar

Chop lemon up coarsely (remember to remove seeds), mix with peel and water and let stand for 24 hours.

Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for half an hour.

Let stand for another 24 hours.

Add sugar, and bring mix to a boil, reduce and simmer until jam has reached its setting point. 

To test the jam has set, place a saucer in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then spoon a little of the jam onto the dish, let cool and tip it to the side. If it runs slowly down the plate (or not at all), it’s set! If not, keep simmering. This might take about an hour, and your kitchen will smell amazing. 

Remove the jam from heat, let stand for about 10 minutes, then pour into sterilised jam jars.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.