One hundred eighty seven kilos

No, this is not Guido's and my body weight combined. It is the amount of fruit that our citrus tree presented us with this season. The tree had been planted by the former owner of the house. Therefore, we don't know exactly what kind of mandarine variety it is - maybe tangerines or mandarine oranges? They are easy to peal, seedless and juicy with a well-balanced taste. For simplicity, let's call them mandarines.

We are very thankful for the tree's productivity and since we don't want to waste any of these yummy mandarines and do share only involuntarily with the squirrels, what do we do with 187 kilos?

Choice #1 and most obvious: eating as many as possible for the last few weeks. Choice #2: Sharing the delight with friends, family and co-workers. And another great option: marmalade!

The German cooking website www.chefkoch.de provided me with the original idea and since then I experimented with various additional ingredients.

Right from the tree, still wet from the rain and dirty

I had best gelling results with Dr. Oetker Gelfix Super 3:1 which I either import from Germany or order through Amazon. Two packages (50 gram) of the 3:1 product make a fruity and less sugary marmalade and require 2 kilo of fruit, plus 700 gram of sugar. An important ingredient of the marmalade is the mandarine peel. As our mandarines are grown organic, no need to worry about pesticides even on the peel. Half of the mandarines are washed, peeled and the peel cut in smaller pieces while the other half gets peeled and the peel goes to compost.

Cleaned, partially peeled and ready for further preparation

Mandarines fully cleaned and peel cut in small slices

Adding 100ml of orange liqueur is one nice variation of the recipe. Instead of orange liqueur, Campari is another option which slightly intensifies the typical bitter taste of the marmalade and adds to its beautiful orange color.

Ready for firing up the stove

Thanks to the gelling powder the pureed fruit and sliced peel requires a cooking time of only 3-4 minutes and can then be distributed into jars which were sterilized in the oven at 100 deg C.

Voila, the finished product!

I have experimented with adding other fruit such as pine apple, persimmon or pomegranate for a less tart and milder taste. Adding cinnamon makes a more Christmassy version. The most adventurous variety I made so far also had persimmons, cranberries and red wine. Come by and try some if you like! Next: I will give making some mandarine liqueur a try! :-)