A Seville contract
Feb. 2nd, 2011 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceI am as it happens a great lover of marmalade, but not a great eater thereof. I don't eat breakfast, you see: and it's so much a breakfast preserve, I am so very hidebound about these things, I barely get through one jar a year in cakes and puddings and such.
But. It's Seville-orange season, those lovely bitter things are in the shops, and I have failed to resist them. I shall make marmalade, and if it's any good I'll just have to give it away. Or make more cakes and puddings.
So - because I am after all Oxonian, and I wouldn't say it's the only kind worth eating, but, y'know: Oxford is Best - I went looking for recipes for Oxford marmalade.
And found many: and, y'know what? They're all different. Strikingly different. You should quarter the oranges, or peel them, or both, or neither. You should add lemons, or apples, or bananas, or none of the above. You should, or shouldn't, use black treacle. Or brown sugar. You should use an equal weight of sugar to oranges. Or double that, or less.
Etc, etc. Lacking any useful guidance, I am just inventing my own recipe based on no experience whatever. If it works, I'll record it here. If it doesn't, you will never hear of this again...
But. It's Seville-orange season, those lovely bitter things are in the shops, and I have failed to resist them. I shall make marmalade, and if it's any good I'll just have to give it away. Or make more cakes and puddings.
So - because I am after all Oxonian, and I wouldn't say it's the only kind worth eating, but, y'know: Oxford is Best - I went looking for recipes for Oxford marmalade.
And found many: and, y'know what? They're all different. Strikingly different. You should quarter the oranges, or peel them, or both, or neither. You should add lemons, or apples, or bananas, or none of the above. You should, or shouldn't, use black treacle. Or brown sugar. You should use an equal weight of sugar to oranges. Or double that, or less.
Etc, etc. Lacking any useful guidance, I am just inventing my own recipe based on no experience whatever. If it works, I'll record it here. If it doesn't, you will never hear of this again...