At this time of year oranges are at their best. Luis has just returned from the second matanza and as always he returned with a car full of goodies including a sack of oranges and a sack of mandarins. They are sourced from Extremadura and shipped to Palencia. The beauty of these oranges is that they are exceptionally sweet, un-waxed and uncoloured unlike most oranges you will find in shops and supermarkets.
Luis is a big jam fan and usually takes the opportunity to make a large batch of orange jam. The recipe and method was given to us from a neighbour in the village who has always made orange jam this way i.e. using the whole fruit, pith included.
The whole fruit is washed and then grated in a food processor. The grated oranges are mixed with half their weight in sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for about 40 minutes until reduced and thickened. It is left to cool and then put into sterilised jars. We seal the jars with pure paraffin wax. For the wax to work effectively we fill the jar to the very top and then top up with the melted wax which sets quickly. This excludes all the air and the wax plug is easy to remove. The jam will keep for over one year.
It really is a delicious jam although not gelatinous like other jams. In addition to being spread on toast, we use this jam with plain yoghurt, as an ingredient in cakes and with chocolate desserts. This batch consisted of 4kg of fruit to 2kg of sugar and made 14 jars. It is a sweet jam as opposed to a bitter marmalade type preserve, deliciosa as they say here in Spain.
Luis is a big jam fan and usually takes the opportunity to make a large batch of orange jam. The recipe and method was given to us from a neighbour in the village who has always made orange jam this way i.e. using the whole fruit, pith included.
The whole fruit is washed and then grated in a food processor. The grated oranges are mixed with half their weight in sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for about 40 minutes until reduced and thickened. It is left to cool and then put into sterilised jars. We seal the jars with pure paraffin wax. For the wax to work effectively we fill the jar to the very top and then top up with the melted wax which sets quickly. This excludes all the air and the wax plug is easy to remove. The jam will keep for over one year.
It really is a delicious jam although not gelatinous like other jams. In addition to being spread on toast, we use this jam with plain yoghurt, as an ingredient in cakes and with chocolate desserts. This batch consisted of 4kg of fruit to 2kg of sugar and made 14 jars. It is a sweet jam as opposed to a bitter marmalade type preserve, deliciosa as they say here in Spain.
That looks delicious! Where do you buy paraffin?
ReplyDeleteThanks Coco, Luis's sister gets it for us from an old fashioned Drogueria. It works really well.
Delete