We had grapefruit for breakfast the other day, and I felt the need to make more marmalade. Now today I am also making Apple Crumble Pie and some lovely Apple Compote from the fabulous first book by Signe Johansen, Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking ...: Scandilicious
(yes, yes, later....) , so I have a pile of apple peels and cores sitting on the worktop.And I remembered a comment from The Marmalady on the original Eco Marmalade post that suggested using apple debris to add pectin to the brew.
She said: "I have seen similar recipes called “compost marmalade” — think Eco-marmalade sounds a lot more appetising.
To up the pectin content, add some apple peel/cores/pips to your muslin bag"
Now I often remember little snippets of stuff. But I don't always remember where it came from, so I was pleased that I DID remember this time. Now I also remember reading somewhere that pressure cooking doesn't do pectin very much good (might have been Marguerite Patten..) (UPDATE 10/3/2014: I've pressure cooked fruit for loads of marmalade since, and can't say that I have found much problem) so I decided that whilst I was pressure cooking the rind, I would simmer the apple peels in around half a litre of water (peels and cores of 5 Bramleys btw..) and strain that to add to the citrus rinds before adding the sugar. Which I did, and along with using half jam sugar, and half ordinary preserving sugar, meant that the boiling was kept to a minimum which I prefer (I think that the orange flavour is at its nicest when it isn't overcooked, and I think the peel hardens too when it is boiled a lot). (UPDATE 10/3/2014: I have made this with ordinary granulated sugar when I didn't have any preserving sugar and it is fine.. just needs boiling for longer than you think it should...)
So there you are! Oranges and apples.. and an orchard of marmalade :)
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