The Oranges of Seville
Quimper Hittys Make Marmalade
Saturday afternoon in the Quimperhitty household finds the CBC Radio turned on full blast so we can hear opera “Live from the Met” …today is Il Barbiere di Seviglia which prompts the Hittys to make marmalade. First you take Three Pounds of Seville Oranges…
.
Constance Scrubs the skins of the oranges.
Fortunately, Constance is very experienced in scrubbing. All the Oranges need to be perfectly clean.
.
.
.
This is the kiss of Tosca! oops, wrong Opera.
The Oranges all have to be punctured! Then they get boiled for an hour and a half in six pints of water.
.
.
Constance admires the paper thin sliced peel.
The innards are scooped out and the seeds strained out. Seeds get tied into a cloth, and boiled for another ten minutes in the orange liquid to extract the pectin then removed and discarded. The peel gets sliced into slivers!
Approaching the Sheeting Stage.
.
The peel goes back in the liquid with the seedless pulp and six pounds of sugar. It all gets boiled and boiled till the “sheeting stage”.
.
Maybe someone will make Hitty-sized scones tomorrow!
.
.
Quimper Hittys 
Oh, Hittys! I’m inspired. I’ve been hoping to do some candied orange peels. Seeing what fun you all had, I might just have to copy.
I love the frame of portraits. Very clever.
It was fun, thanks! Marmalade is an all day job, but ten jars is certainly worth the effort, and Candied peel, m-m-m.
What a big job for such little people.
I can imagine the wonderful smell of those cooking oranges.
The smell was wonderful, the colour rich, the taste heavenly, and oh, the satisfaction of the pinging lids as the jars cooled down!
YUM. Linnea is chomping at the bit waiting for her jar to set. 🙂
Should be good to go today – the humans are having marmalade on fresh croissants this morning!
This is a most creative way to enjoy opera for those of us who are not as immersed in it. Yes, it’s all very inspirational in every aspect!
We do have fun – how could we resist making marmalade today?
One of my best meals is a hot cup of tea, bread, butter and marmalade…….Would love to get a bottle of Tansy’s marmalade. They had so much fun making it……..I am sure it is quite delicious !!!
It was thick, amber-coloured and really delicious, and a cup of tea was the perfect accompaniment!