Marmalade?

2 lbs are in the process of becoming marmalade. That was only a small portion of the bin.

I candied some of the peals and now the other half is complaining about me stinking up the place.

tclynx,

Candied tangerine-peel cups sound adorable! I have a weakness for edible serving dishes --- taco salad in a tortilla bowl, soup in a bread bowl, berries in chocolate cups....

Ellie Topp's book has instructions for making candied citrus peel; she suggests you slice the rinds into 1/2-inch slices, but I can't see why it wouldn't work on cups.

You'd need extr sugar syrup to keep them covered, I'd imagine.

Her instructions for 2 cups of half-inch-slice peels (which she says is equivalent to 3 oranges), are as follows:

- Place rinds in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, reduce heat, boil gently for 2 minutes (or longer if you don't like strong citrus flavour).

- Combine 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, and 1/2 Tbsp corn syrup in pan and bring to boil over high heat. Add rinds, return to boil, cover and boil gently for 15 minutes. Remove cover and continue to boil gently for about 30 minutes or until liquid is reduced to about 2 Tablespoons. Remove rinds to cooling rack to drain.

- When rinds are drained, roll a few at a time in extra sugar, being careful to coat well. Place on a baking sheet or wax paper. Let sit at room temperature to air-dry for 24 hours.

Pack in airtight containers and store in the refrigerator.

******

SO imagine you'd need to make a bigger batch of syrup and rather than letting it boil mostly away, make sure the cups stay covered; go by the timing, and after the 45 minutes or so pluck them out.

You could then dip them in chocolate, or maybe serve a little chocolate mousse in them, or a little fruit cup....

Let us know if you try this!

I'm going through clementines at about a zillion a day right now and am tempted to try it with cups from their cute little peels....

Z

I did a thing recently on cooking with pumpkin. One of the recipes was whipped pumpkin in an orange cup. If I remember, you hollowed out the orange half (substitute tangerine - should be the same) leaving a little pulp behind, filled with whipped sweet potatoes (try adding a little of the orange, maybe some butter ), bake 20 minutes or so and serve. Sounds festive.

Well, what I finally tried...
I boiled the peels in water with a little baking soda (now I'm not certain I should have used the baking soda but I noticed that many marmalade or kumquat recipes say to use it for the first soak in hot water so I tried. Anyone know what the baking soda is for in some of the recipes?) Anyway, I boiled the skins a bit and then drained and cooled them so I could use a spoon to scoop out more of the bitter white stuff. Do this very gently as the skins are more fragile after cooking for a little while. I didn't time this very closely but a few minutes or so seems to work. So, I scraped out as much of the white pith as I could. With our dancy tangerines there isn't very much white stuff but when I tested the first peal without removing the white stuff it had a really strong bitter aftertaste. After cleaning the cooked peel cups I then boiled them gently in simple syrup. I didn't really time in. I just kept an eye on them and removed them when they started becoming a little transparent. I let them drain. They are tricky to handle as they like to stack themselves up in the boiling syrup. After they drain a bit or loose some of their stickiness, I shook them in a ziplock bag with some sugar and placed them in the dehydrator on the top rack with a tall dome lid to allow enough space for them.

They are cute little cups, Now I need to figure out what to do with them.

I made some tangerine marmalade (just a really small batch, two full 12 oz jars processed and one partial jar I'm taste testing as I write.) Tasty. I think I need to test my candy thermometer though as this stuff has jelled up very well even though the thermometer never got up to the temp that I read is needed for our altitude. We are at less than 500 feet above sea level so I would expect the appropriate temp to be over 215 F right? Anyway, it still seemed to work and I like the taste so all is well that ends well huh?

And - once you've filled your freezer, all of the jars in the pantry - cooked lots of marmalade granola bars - and exhausted all avenues and ventures - compost, compost, compost. Don't forget to add plenty of shredded newspaper to the worm bins, to keep down the fruit flies.

Makes great finished compost.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

When my girls were in Girl Scouts, they used hollowed out orange halves to bake muffins in. They added a nicely "orange-y" flavor to muffins, I liked the bran muffins especially that way.

Annie

Been running the dehydrator constantly drying out as many tangerine slices as I can. They make a nice healthy snack, taste kinda like candy but without all the extra sugar.

My tangerine marmalade is a hit, I will have to make some more before all the tangerines are gone. I only made a tiny batch last time.

If the tangerine marmalade is that popular, try canning in pint jars or even in quarts!

I actually thinK (at least for use here at home) I will use the 12 oz jelly jars cause the fit so perfectly on the top door shelf of the fridge where we usually put the jelly. I would rather slightly smaller jars that we have to crack open new ones more often than large jars that don't fit conveniently or go bad before we use them up (usually cause they don't fit where they belong and get buried in the back of the fridge and forgotten.) I know it costs a little more in jars and lids but I hate finding moldy stuff in the fridge.

You mention dehydrating tangerine slices. How long does it take them to dry. I was hesitant to try it on my mandarins (now gone) because I felt they contained too much water and probably wouldn't be worth the effort - taste wise.

Do you prepare the slices in any way first?

Bejay

I have never had any home made jellies or jams go bad. If done correctly, they would only darken in color after a long storage. The pint jars are about the same height as a 12 ounce jelly jar, only bigger around, provided you use the regular mouth type.

I am in a similar situation with a giant minneloa tree (I think minneolas are a cross between tangerines and grapefruit). I also have peels from many other citrus.

I did look into purchasing distillation equipment to make my own essential lemon-orange-tangerine oils. I would be able to make many other distilled essential oils since I also have lots of oregano, marjoram, lemon verbena, rosemary, lavender, mint, all sorts of herbs. I will probably do this some day, but the equipment is on the pricey side so for now I am composting the peel (except for the little bit that goes into marmalade). I layer them between mulch on my composter and have no critter troubles.

The dried tangerine slices came out pretty good. Unfortunately my dehydrator doesn't have temperature controls so I have to be vigilant to keep the slices from scorching. they don't taste good that way.

Anyway, I did lots of slices with the skin on cutting accross the sections to make circles and these are good if one likes the strong flavor of the peels. I also did a bunch where we peeled and sectioned the tangerines and then cut open the sections to remove the seeds and allow them to dry. If cut from the outside edge in and don't quite cut the membrane of the inner edge, you can fold them open into little circles. Place them membrane side down on the dehydrator trays for the first part of drying to help avoid sticking.

They make good dried fruit treats.

I'll have to try drying some grapefruit next.