Bergamot flowers are used for our Turkish Tea. Bergamot orange is also used for jams and marmalade.

It has been in the larder for months – picked up at one of our favourite Middle Eastern stores.  A new brand.  One we hadn’t had before.

Marmalade is what i thought I was getting when I started to open the jar on the counter. Grunts and groans and a bruised palm of my hand later, under the hot tap, and then to the dungeon to get the vice grips! Grrr! What did they put the lid on with?  A bench press?

What’s this? … rind half inch by 2 inches and hardly any syrup. Grrrr…. the toast is burnt…. (multiple expletives deleted and a few sentence enhancers added) and no butter on it.  Double Grrrr.

By this time, B has wisely departed to do some grocery shopping.

Dig into the back of the cupboard and out with the submersible.  Not that there’s much syrup to submerse it in.  Maybe I should describe it as mylate M-I-L did – a whirler. Much later I now have a gooey pulp, with the pondering question: “Why won’t it all fit back in the jar?”

The sticky mess is cleaned up, the jar is shoved to the back of the counter for later reflection on what to do with it.

As I’m unpacking the groceries there is a lovely roasting chicken.  Ah Hah.  Stuff it with half a lemon quartered.

Salt. Pepper. Paprika. … Bergamot mush (it sure isn’t jam or marmalade) becomes the new glaze of the day.