Oops

[flick]

11:00am - Flick puts marrons glacés in Aga, and sets alarm for three hours.

1:00pm - Flick realises that the alarm will go off while she's being de-haired, cancels it and SMSs Mike to say "please take them out in an hour or two".

7:00pm - Flick thinks "I wonder if Mike took the marrons glacés out of the Aga? I don't remember seeing them on the worktop while he was cooking. Must remember to check." And then forgets, on account of being in a field at the time.

9:30pm - Flick remembers thinking the above when last in the field. And continues to remember for long enough to get into the kitchen and take them out of the Aga.

I wonder what that's going to do to them...?

(They are rather experimental, and made from windfalls. We shall see!)

(The sugar has, finally, all dissolved in the sloe gin, though, which I take as a good sign! Anyone know if I still need to keep periodically shaking it now or not? Am contemplating taking some carrier bags out and gathering fruit for a second, post-frost batch, but all the ones I'd been vaguely considering for that are now looking a bit old and withered, due to late frost.)

(I paraphrase only slightly when I say that one of the Aga cook books describes the process thus: "Making marrons glacés without an Aga is a horribly long and tedious process. With an Aga, it only requires three or four hours of initial prep time and then popping them in the simmering oven for two or three hours each evening for a fortnight while preparing dinner! So simple!")

Comments

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I don't bother with sugar in the blackberry gin. Or the blackberry whisky, or the damson vodka, or the blackberry vodka... the fruit sugars make them sweet enough.
I shake the bottles once a day for the first week then once a week until I strain and bottle them (about 2-3 months).
I freeze the fruit once it's strained out.

Don't know if that helps?

FF

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Marrons glacés are a famously immense faff, and the commercial methods involve making multiple sugar syrups at different sugar concentrations, and, yes, weeks of work. I always reckoned it would be possible to do something at home that would be a tenth of the price and perhaps only half as good.

[guybles.livejournal.com]

The first time I encountered an Aga, I consulted a nearby cookbook for some insight about just the hell I was supposed to do with this hot lump of metal.

The first page I opened to contained a recipe for jugged hare, with the comment that this was "the dish that the Aga was made for".

So, I entirely believe what you read in your Aga cookbook about marrons glacés. The writers of these things seem to live in some kind of parallel universe where nobody ever gets gout.

(in the end, I decided to believe them that half an hour in the roasting oven, followed by all day in the simmering oven, is the perfect way to prepare a bone-in pork belly - and, by golly, they were right (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/guybles/919432/5230/5230_900.jpg))

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

M has long desired aga (not a chance, would fill our entire kitchen), but I've always thought they're too faffy. But you've won me over now, 'cos marron glace are my most favouritist sweet thing EVER. I hope the experiment works. And I just went to check out the damson gin I set going in September, and yes, sugar all gone. :) Also unsure about shaking routine - I shake the jars a little bit when I remember (like now), but mostly they just sit there. But looking good and purple, and hopefully will be drinkable by Christmas. Good luck with the sloes (which I intend to try out next year).