A Post Sukkot treat

My neighbor had dropped off her etrog the other night. We had one of our own. Sometimes, after Sukkot I make marmalade inspired by my friend Miriam's mom Rachelle, a truly impressive cook and an old buddy of my mother's.

I only had two etrogim, but I did have a gallon sized bag in the freezer that has been filling up with orange peels. My brain is still not quite up to par. I did have enough brain power to cut up a pile of citrus rinds.As I cut up the peels I thought of the many jars of Dundee Marmalade that got consumed in my childhood home. I thought about how all of those jars boasted that the marmalade inside was hand-cut.

It's important to boil off the bitter oils that live inside the citrus peels ( and especially in the etrogim). Rachelle's recipe involves many days of soaking in water and changing that water. I use a method I have seen in other cookbooks of repeatedly boiling the peels for a while, dumping the water and then repeating the boiling of the orange peels.I remember five changes of water appearing in several books. (This is what happens when one has been reading cookbooks since early childhood, although to be honest when I was really young I only read the chapters about making sweets.

Cooking methods have worked their way into my lizard brain from the shelf of cookbooks in the kitchen in Quincy.Once in college when I was what British books call impaired, one of my friends asked me how to cook a roast. I had never cooked a roast in my life and was in those days vegetarian. In my impaired state I spooled out a multi part recipe for coating the meat in seasoned flour, browning on the stove top before cooking in the oven.


I suppose making marmalade would have been easier if I had ever seen anyone making marmalade. It isn't all that hard. The tools you need are simple.

Here they are after I was done and they all got washed.

As I look at the photo I realized that I didn't include a sieve in the photo. That is essential for the many drainings of  the boiled citrus peels.

After a couple of hours or boiling and draining  (frankly I lost count of how many boils and drains I had done) I added sugar to the orange peels and some water. I think the traditional way to do this is to weigh the peels and then add the same amount of sugar.  I added four cups of sugar and some water.  I had started out with less sugar but realized as the mixture boiled that the marmalade wouldn't thicken unless I added more sugar.

I let the mixture boil away until it got thicker..

I even poured boiling water over the jars that were to store the marmalade.

This is what is what got made today..

Two 16oz mustard jars, a mason jar, a jam jar and a large Costco sized artichoke jar. My neighbor who brought me the etrog will get one jar. If you like marmalade this is a great thing. If not, not so much.


There is a tradition to save the last bit of etrog jam for Tu B'shvat.  Last year I had the last scrapings of etrog jam on Tu B'shvat.