A Lime is a thing of beauty, and as we buy them when they are lime green they are picture perfect. Just by coincidence when we were walking past a gallery in Bath today, there in the window was a beautiful oil painting extolling the beauty of limes.
Even in our kitchen I have chosen lime green as an accent colour. However I have known for some time that lime green limes are under ripe limes and once picked do not ripen. If left to mature on the tree they turn yellow, and as they ripen they get juicier and loose that extreme acidity. When they are unripe and green a set marmalade requires the maker to reduce its acidity by adding bicarbonate of soda.
Therefore when I saw a small box of limes being sold for 20p, yes about 1.5p each being sold off when I went up to Wells Fruit and Veg last week up at the Rocky Mountain Nursery, I knew one of the boxes had my name written on it.
Even though I knew the acidity would be reduced, I still wasn't sure by how much, and thought about what I would add to the marmalade. I have sometimes added extra 'botanicals' to lime marmalade such as cardamom and have tried juniper too, all of which taste wonderful. Over on my other blog, if you search on Lime, you will get an idea of some of those variations using limes.
This time I used cooking apples whole after removing just the stalk and flower ends. The fruit was pressure cooked which really helps to soften the lime peel, which I then chop up after they are soften and passed all the remaining fruit through a fine sieve. I wanted a fruity nicely set marmalade quite different to the jelly like Rose's Lime Marmalade.
The set was perfect and this mornings breakfast proved that once again limes really do made a delicious marmalade. I'll be posting the recipe on my other blog: Mrs Mace Preserves.
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