Saturday 8 August 2009

Marrow and Apricot Conserve

Continuing from yesterday, the sugar leached out all the juices from the marrow, so there were tiny pieces of what looked like dried apple in masses of syrup. The apricot had swelled a bit though. Anyway, in the spirit of experimentation, I put the whole lot on to boil, remembering halfway through that I was going to add the lemon zest and juice, so ended up just glugging in some lemon juice from the bottle in the fridge. Once the sugar had dissolved I put it on to a rolling boil, and let it get on with it, stirring occasionally. Things seemed to be a bit thicker after a while, so I used the thermometer, and found it read 110C, so as I didn't want to make toffee, I turned it off. The marrow and apricot were still floating, so I allowed it to cool a little, until it started to get pretty thick, and the fruit stayed dispersed. Then I potted it up, probably around 1.5 lbs I would think. It's a bit sweet and thick, but Dans tried it and loved it, said he's bagging a jar for uni, and it will be great on ice cream as well as toast. The conserve is a pretty golden colour, with the orange apricots lending deeper tones. I did intend to stir some flaked almonds in, and I think some alcohol of some description would go nicely. I might try a 'posh' version when next my courgettes end up as marrows.
I've now picked a good few blackberries, so decision time on what to do with those. I'm running out of jars though, so will need to go begging soon.

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