As citrus starts to ripen in Canberra for the winter season, the makers of cumquat marmalade are harvesting homegrown fruit. Dr David Denham, of Griffith, gave me a jar of his marmalade made from buckets of fruit grown by friends in Forrest. It was made to a recipe (which follows) from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion (1996, 2004) which came from Alexander's mother, Mary Burchett, to whom to book is dedicated.
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Denham added "about two heaped serving spoons of crystallised ginger, chopped into small pieces and added at the end of the setting process". He only used 11 cups of sugar to the two kilograms of fruit and he quartered each cumquat and did not bother about the pips. Most of these were skimmed off from the top of the pan just before setting point was reached. There are still one or two in the marmalade but these can be easily avoided and it meant the cook didn't have to go through the process of separating them out and putting them into a muslin bag. This season, too, Denham used a heat thermometer.
I think his finished product is better than last year, runnier and a clearer gel, but I am a mere amateur judge. This was a reminder of Kitchen Garden (April 23) which mentioned the World Marmalade Awards at Dalemain Mansion in Britain and the Australian winners who included Dr Philip Spradbery of Yarralumla.
Now there is something new. From May 12-19 the inaugural Japanese Marmalade Awards were held in the citrus-growing region around the town of Yawatahama. Judges included Jane Hasell-McCosh, founder of the British awards, and Dan Lepard, Australian baker, food writer and chef.
Among 1600 entries, the artisan and homemade makers of marmalade used yuzu a citrus fruit currently popular with Australian chefs, daidai (Asian bitter orange) and sudachi (a sour citrus). Hasell-McCosh said, "Japan has been amazing with so many varieties of citrus fruit. It has been a sensational festival." She said readers should be encouraged to go in for all three competitions (Britain, Japan and Australia) and see how they fare in other countries.
Hasell-McCosh shared the judging criteria for the World 's Original Marmalade Awards and first explained to clear the palate the judges eat dry biscuits and drink mineral water. They judge in pairs and try to get through eight to 10 marmalades in an hour. A teaspoon is used for tasting and often a spittoon.
The main criteria are: what the marmalade looks like - the peel should be evenly distributed and it must look as if you want to eat it; aroma - it must have a dominant fresh citrus smell; texture - it has to be set but not rock solid and the citrus properly cooked; taste - this is obviously the most important, you must be able to identify the ingredients which should have balance and a good finish.
If you are considering an Australian indigenous ingredient marmalade, visit the National Museum of Australia. Following a performance by Muggera Cultural Enterprise Dancers on Reconciliation Day, I visited the shop where 220g jars of Indigiearth Wild Lime Marmalade were made from Australian finger limes. The company in Mudgee NSW is 100 per cent Aboriginal owned and operated.
My latest trick with homegrown cumquats is to cut them in half, remove pips and pop them under the griller with chicken breast strips. A taste of downmarket duck l'orange.
Cumquat marmalade
Ingredients
2kg cumquats, washed
sugar
Method
1 - Discard any stems and cut cumquats into quarters, flicking out and reserving pips. Tie pips in muslin. Put fruit and pips into a non-reactive bowl and barely cover with cold water (about 1.5 litres). Leave overnight.
2 - Next day, measure fruit and soaking water into cups, noting the number (my last batch measured 13 cups). Cook fruit in its soaking water with pips until tender, then add 1 cup sugar to each previously measured cup. Boil briskly until marmalade reaches setting stage, about 25 minutes.
3 - Allow to cool until a skin starts to form, then stir gently to distribute fruit. Discard pips and bottle in hot, sterilised jars, sealing while hot.
