Home › Preserving › Rhubarb Marmalade (Pounds rhubarb cut in I pound)
Rhubarb Marmalade (Pounds rhubarb cut in I pound)
6 pounds rhubarb cut in 1 pound figs, cut fine cubes (not peeled) 5 pounds sugar 1 pound candied orange orange peel, cut fine Put in a saucepan in layers, let stand over night, cook slowly until thick.
The page is a two-column list that the typesetter (or the scanner) ran together; read it as 6 lb rhubarb cut in cubes, unpeeled, 1 lb figs cut fine, 5 lb sugar, and 1 lb candied orange peel cut fine. The method itself is only two clauses long, so most of the work is judgment.
- The ingredient list, untangledSix pounds rhubarb, unpeeled, in small cubes; one pound figs chopped fine; five pounds sugar; one pound candied orange peel chopped fine. The words "cut in" and "orange" appear twice because the columns overlapped.
- The overnight stand is the hingeLayering fruit with sugar and leaving it draws out enough juice that nothing needs to be added and nothing scorches at the start. Skip it and you will be tempted to add water, which lengthens the cooking.
- Batch sizeThirteen pounds of fruit, peel and sugar is a great deal for one pan, and will fill a good many jars. Halve or quarter it, and use a wide, heavy pan no more than half full, since the mixture climbs as it boils.
- FigsDried figs are most likely meant, stems removed. They contribute body, and very dry ones benefit from being chopped small so they soften into the mass rather than sitting in it as lumps.
- Candied peelA pound of candied orange peel is a lot by modern standards and adds sugar of its own. Buy whole candied peel and chop it yourself if you can; supermarket mixed peel is finer, sweeter and often bitter in a flat way.
- "Cook slowly until thick"Expect 45 minutes to over an hour of steady simmering after the sugar dissolves, with frequent stirring once it thickens, as rhubarb sticks and catches. Set is reached around 220F, or when a spoonful chilled on a cold plate wrinkles when pushed.
- Don't peel the rhubarbThe instruction is explicit in the recipe. The red skin carries much of the colour, and peeled stalks give a paler, duller preserve.
- Sealing and storageThe recipe gives no sealing or storage instruction at all. For keeping at room temperature, follow current water-bath processing times for a rhubarb jam or marmalade; otherwise refrigerate and use within a few weeks.
"Marmalade" in an American preserving book often means any thick fruit paste stiff enough to hold its shape on a spoon, not specifically a citrus one he narville oranges is generally understood to be a later, British-inflected usage. Rhubarb earned its place in such books because it was the first thing a northern kitchen garden produced, weeks before any true fruit, which is why cooks called it pie plant and treated it as fruit despite its being a vegetable stalk. The figs and candied peel here appear to be doing what dried and preserved imports could do in spring recipes: supplying sweetness, aroma and body at a moment when the larder had little else, and stretching a garden glut into something worth putting on a shelf.