In article >, says...
>
> On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 17:16:18 -0500, Sky > wrote:
>
> >Rarely do I use citrus zest of any sort, and I'm curious. Before
> >slicing the citrus fruits, perhaps it'd be a good idea to first zest the
> >critter <G> and save the zest for later use if it's not immediately
> >needed. Then it occurred to me the zest might be freezable?? Does
> >anyone freeze the zest? This is something I've never seen referenced
> >before.
>
> I haven't frozen zest but don't see why it wouldn't work.
> Another option would be to preserve the zest, very easy (and tasty):
> http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/preserved-lemons

For making marmalade, I use Seville bitter oranges which are only in
season for about a month at New Year. This year I froze 2 kilogrammes of
them as whole fruit, to make some Elderflower and orange marmalade later
in the year when elder flowers are in season, (June)

The (whole) oranges defrosted a bit soft but that made the peel
easier to prepare for marmalade; so for cooking purposes I think frozen
zest would be fine.

Some years ago I tasted some wonderful elderflower marmalade at a
festival; the maker gave me sketchy instructions involving unspecified
amount of fresh wild elder flower heads cooked with the marmalade. Last
month I picked them, washed them, cut the stalks off, got out the sewing
machine and made a large muslin bag to hold them, prepared the oranges,
cooked it all up the usual way, and the marmalade was so disappointing I
donated it to a charity sale. That's the second elderflower marmalade
failure I've had; first time I had no flowers so just added a bottle of
elderflower cordial which was completely unnoticeable in the finished
product.

This time I think I used too many elderflowers; shall try again next
year. If anyone has their granny's recipe with fresh elder flowers I'd
be glad to hear it.

Re marmalade;

Last January our local supermarket ran a customers home-made marmalade
competition, to win a very nice ss maslin pan and jam thermometer. I
entered a jar of my January batch of course. My husband, who had never
made marmalade in his life before, decided to make a batch just so he
could win the jam pan.

and guess what, his marmalade beat mine and he won the pan.
<splutter>.

Janet UK