Mandarin oranges are frequently made into bitter marmalade. This recipe is not like that though. This is a jam, a lovely and sweet jam. As a bonus, it also has a cheerful orange color. The perfect color for the Halloween season.
A mandarin orange is a slightly smaller relative of the standard orange. These days they’re available all year round. In the past though, the mandarin season ran roughly from October to March. Making it summery luxury in the middle of winter. This is probably also why we associate citrus fruits with the Christmas holidays so much.
While most of the mandarins sold in the Netherlands come from Spain, China is actually the largest producer. Which makes perfect sense, since this is where they’re originally from. The Chinese have actually been growing them for the last 3000 years! However, mandarins didn’t reach Europe and North America until the nineteenth century.
When you go to buy mandarin oranges though, they might not actually have any. However they might sell fruits that look like mandarins, called tangerines, clementines, satsuma… So are they de same thing or not?
The explanation is very simple. Mandarin orange is kind of an umbrella term, as there are different types of mandarins. Tangerines, clementines and satsuma are all different types of mandarins. So in short: a tangerine is always a mandarin. But not every mandarin is a tangerine. While these different types of mandarin oranges vary slightly in taste and sweetness, they can all be used to make this recipe.
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Ingredients
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- Sterilize your jars by washing them in very hot water. Leave them to dry. You can use any jar as long as it's airtight.
- Peel the mandarins and remove the white pitch. Because it can give your jam a bitter taste, try to remove as much of it as you can. Removing the membranes isn't necessary. Make sure to check for any seeds however!
- Combine the mandarin parts, lemon juice and jam sugar in a pan and warm through on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Then blend the ingredients with a (hand)blender, until smooth.
- Add the cinnamon stick and bring the jam to the boil. Then let the mixture simmer for the amount of time indicated on the jam sugar package. For the sugar I used that was 4 minutes.
- To test the consistency of your jam, put a little bit on a plate and leave to cool. Your jam is ready, if the surface of that jam ripples when you drag your finger through it. If not, let it simmer for a bit longer.
- When you're happy with the consistency of your sauce remove the pan from the heat. Pour the jam into your prepared jars and put on the lids. Let the jars cool a little bit before turning them upside-down. Then leave them to cool down completely.
- Letting your jars cool while upside-down, should create a vacuum. If one of your jars turns out not to be completely vacuum (there always seems to be one), simply use this one first.
