Lemon and Lime Marmalade with Ginger
Asked on 12 Jan 2017 by JOHND
I have just completed cooking Delia's Lemon and lime Marmalade, unfortunately after following it to the letter, the limes which were very soft before bottling turned out so hard after cooling. Would it be an idea to boil the limes first to soften the skins before proceeding to boiling the complete mixture and then bottling after reaching the "set point"?
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Hello,
The recipe says to simmer the cut peels in the water with the juice and bag of pips and pith for 2 hours until the peel is completely soft. If you boil it, too much water will evaporate too quickly.
I’m not sure if you didn’t cook your peels at all or just didn’t cook them for long enough in simmering water. Either way they will go hard when boiled with the sugar if they are not soft enough before you add the sugar.
We show testing the peel at 4 minutes 33 seconds in the Seville Orange Marmalade lesson if you want to have a look.
How to make Marmalade
Kind regards
Lindsey
Hello Lindsey, as I explained zI followed the instructions to the full.I boiled the fruit until it was soft. BUT as I explained the line skin was hard after cooling, all I wish to know is, would it be advisable to boil the limes on their own before adding to the lemons ensuring that the skins of the limes will be soft AFTER the two hour cooking time as advised by Delia?
Hello,
We haven’t tried that.
It certainly would ensure that the peel is soft. You would have to try it and see. I’m not sure if the lime will be too soft? Or if it would be better to add the pre-cooked lime to the lemon at some point when the simmering lemon has had time to soften?
Sorry if I misunderstood your original question but generally if the peel in citrus marmalade is tough it’s because is was simmered too gently or it wasn’t simmered long enough and we try not to make recipes more complicated.
Kind regards
Lindsey
Many thanks, Lindsey.