221: not all it's cracked up to be?
Apr. 13th, 2015 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceScience may not after all be the reliable guide I was looking for. This is disappointing to me; I may be obliged after all to fall back on craft.
In January, I made my regular Seville orange marmalade; this week, I made kumquat marmalade, because kumquats.
In January, I trusted to science and boiled it to 221 degrees F, and bottled it up - and did it set? Hah! I laugh at your naive questioning, O Internet! I poured it out of the jars and boiled it again, and had to take it to 226 before achieving a decent set.
This week? I boiled it barely to 221 - and it's setting hard as rubber.
Presumably there is different levels of pectin somewhat to blame here (American Sevilles, I find, are very light on pips), but even so, I am disappoint. I wanted to be able to watch numbers. I like numbers. I don't like faffing about with cold saucers and dribbles and is-it-wrinkly-yet?
In January, I made my regular Seville orange marmalade; this week, I made kumquat marmalade, because kumquats.
In January, I trusted to science and boiled it to 221 degrees F, and bottled it up - and did it set? Hah! I laugh at your naive questioning, O Internet! I poured it out of the jars and boiled it again, and had to take it to 226 before achieving a decent set.
This week? I boiled it barely to 221 - and it's setting hard as rubber.
Presumably there is different levels of pectin somewhat to blame here (American Sevilles, I find, are very light on pips), but even so, I am disappoint. I wanted to be able to watch numbers. I like numbers. I don't like faffing about with cold saucers and dribbles and is-it-wrinkly-yet?