Blue Chair jam

06Jan11

I attended a book signing with Rachel Saunders in November.  She has a company called Blue Chair Fruit, and she makes wonderful and fairly complex jam/marmalade.  Apparently, she’s been on Martha Stewart, so I guess she’s big time.

I had tried one of her marmalades a while ago, and found it to be a little sweet, to be honest.  I tend to value a strong bitter undertone in my marmalade– otherwise it’s just citrus jelly, honestly– but she had done something to remove a lot of the bitterness.  When I looked over her marm recipes, I noticed that she spent a lot of time blanching the citrus rinds, which would account for the lack of bitterness (which comes from the oils in the rind). This was of use to me, because while my father had thanked me last year for the Seville marmalade, he said he preferred it a little sweeter.

So now, once the Sevilles are in, I’ll be able to make something he’ll like.  Me, I’ll stick with the June Taylor version that is a flavor explosion (and makes my brain dance with happiness), but it’s good to have alternatives.

Main difference between June and Rachel: June’s recipes emphasize the fruit, while Rachel seems to add a lot of other flavors to the mix.  Both are great, just different.

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