Allotments 4 All

Good morning everyone,

In the past I successfully made marmalade with our old pressure cooker which had weights for 5, 10 & 15 lbs and followed a recipe which said pressure cook at 10 lbs.  Following the demise of the said cooker last year, I am stuck with our "camping" pressure cooker which only has a 15lbs weight. 

Now, one recipe book I have says this would be OK (Marguerite Patten, no less), the other says that the pectin will be destroyed.  Does anyone know for certain either way?

Seville oranges at the ready and wishing us all a good year,
Sue

To be honest I have never used a pressure cooker for marmalade, although for that matter I never replaced mine when the ring/seal thingy perished and nowhere seemed to have a replacement.

The pectin is in the pips so if you are just using the pressure cooker to soften the peel. do that first then make the marmalade proper with the lid off add the pectin.

You can take some of the water out of the recipe and simmer the pips in that, then when the water is sticky and gooey, put it through a seive to get rid of the pips and add it when you add the sugar. You can make the pip and water pectin in the microwave to add to any jam which is hard to set. I keep pips in a tiny tupperware box, adding to it each time I squeeze lemons limes or oranges.

One table spoon of pips to a pint of water gives plenty of pectin for 5~6lb of jam (the most I would make in one go) I let it simmer on a low heat until it gets sticky. So am not sure how long it takes. I am a cook til it is done type. But I do not think it would take any more than half an hour.

I can not find a marmalade/pressure cooker recipe to be honest.

My recipes all say jams should be made in an uncovered pan.

I have just remembered now why I never replaced my pressure cooker. I heard about a lot of them exploding and people finding steak and kidney on the kitchen ceiling.

I am not much help realy am I?

It is a long time since I made marmalade in the pressure cooker, but I never used anything except the full 15lb weight.

I use my pressure cooker a lot and have never had one explode.  Been using them since I was a child.

Great for stews, soups, joints of ham, baked beans, jams.  If I am in a hurry or the meat is a bit tough I put it in the pressure cooker before finishing it off in the oven.  I buy cheap pieces of bacon off cuts the large pieces are best, 15 mins in the pressure cooker with a few cloves and result - beautiful ham.

A hidden secret about Pressure cookers: they are the best way to get a very clean kitchen.
First you put in a batch of green split pea soup with a ham bone and bay leaves.
Heat up the cooker and walk away to sort laundry.

When you come back the greensplit pea soup is hanging in curtains from the ceiling and walls and dripping down the window panes.

You get out your bucket and scrub brush, wash the ceiling, walls and floor and presto!
The cleanest kitchen in town.

 ;D ;D ;D

I use a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker often when making marmalade (for cooking the fruit and softening the peel only). After this is done, and the peel cut, and fruit sieved off, then the marmalade is cooked in an open pan with the sugar.
I cannot recommend this brand of pressure cooker highly enough, it is so easy to use. It has 2 pressure bands, the highest is equivalent to 15psi.
What I would say about the issue of pectin being destroyed is that the best thing to do when using high temperature cooking methods is to cook the fruit quickly - if you cook for a long time at high temperatures the pectin in the fruit does degrade. Only when the fruit is fully cooked do you add the sugar. Different fruits contain different levels and types of pectin - one example is pear, which has a type of pectin in it which just won't set. Acidity, and the amount of water in the fruit affects the way the jam or maramlade sets too.

Added: meant to say, that the ripeness of the fruit also affects the setting.

Same as ours!  But too narrow for easy bottling.

Marmalade

Pressure cook 4lb Sevilles & 1 Lemon for 15 min in 3 ½ pt Water.

When cool enough, cut Fruit to size, removing pips/membrane into muslin bag.

Dissolve 6lb Sugar in the water with muslin bag & bring to 220F.

Add  Fruit & restore to setting point – 220F.

Cool, stir & jar as usual.

Hello all,
Thank you so much for all your contributions.  It's nice to know that we're not the only ones with these "family heirlooms" in the kitchen!  We are a big advocate of them on account of their quicker and more efficient cooking: as veggies, we find them great for cooking lots of pulses for the freezer, but also for soups, stews, curries, etc.  It is a shame that the practicalities of using them puts some people off.

In the end I dug out the recipe booklets for the two models we had and the original was fairly adamant about the 10lbs pressure for preserves....at which point I succumbed to a very cheap deal on amazon and ordered a replacement of our original (and larger) 1960s model.
Maybe it's something about the weather (yet more snow here in Leeds this morning), but I'm looking forward to an evening of marmalade making later on this week - when the kids have gone to bed!

Thank you all once again,
Sue

Yes - 10lb in many recipes but quicker with 15 for softening skins. A bit longer with 10 but still better than stewing.

I too have had marmalade dripping from the ceiling with a pressure cooker. User error.

Now I boil the oranges and one lemon in a pan, scoop out the contents when cool, boil them up to extract pectin, sieve, slice up the nice soft skins. Short time boiling skins, juice, sugar and put in jars. Absolutely perfect and the easiest way possible to make a year's marmalade.