Background:
We grow lots of citrus – that is how we got started in fruit growing for ourselves in our small holding Little Farm. Citrus loves California weather, and we planted orange, tangelo and grapefruit trees some 30 years ago and they have been so good to us for decades. We have lots of produce and now have more citrus of the exotic type – like Hand of Buddha ( the Citron fruit – inedible alone but incredible in jam), the Cara-Cara Navel Orange – the best in the world – once you have tasted this you will want no other, Meyer lemons (I promise a recipe for this too) and Pomelo’s – I will have some pictures on the site of these – they are humongous but delicious with pink flesh and lots of juice. Take a look at some of the pictures of our laden orange and grapefruit trees from which the fruit was taken for this recipe.
Ingredients:
6 Grapefruit
6 Oranges
6 Sugar
1 box Pectin
6 cups Water
1 tsp Butter
Preparation Time: 60 minutes
Cooking Time: 240 minutes
Directions:
- Peel the zest off the oranges with a vegetable peeler, making sure that there is no white pith with it.
- Put the zest in a large pot.
- Then peel the orange, discard the pith and pits, and cut up the fruit and add it to the pot.
- Peel the grapefruit and discard the skin, pith, zest and pits, and cut the fruit up adding it to the pot as well.
- Add the sugar and the water.
- Let it come to a boil and then simmer for 3 hours. Yep, three hours.I know, that’s the pain of this recipe which is otherwise really easy. You have to hang around the kitchen to make sure that the liquid reduces but that the mixture does not burn on the bottom of the pot – sometimes I will increase the heat to medium or medium high, and stand right there, stirring fairly regularly – with the TV on as a distraction, or chatting with family members, or even making dinner while stirring. That way, the time passes fast.
- When you have reduced it about one third, add the box of pectin by putting the pectin powder into a measuring cup, adding about an ounce of hot water and stirring until it dissolves, then adding it to the marmalade mixture and stirring again till dissolved.
- Note: adding a teaspoon of butter will reduce the foaming that occurs. Once it has boiled, reduce the heat again to simmer and continue until it reaches a consistency that is thick and feels like marmalade!
- While this is happening, put about 4-6 one pint canning jars (Kerr makes a good one) into your dishwasher to clean thoroughly. Put your tongs in there too so that when the cycle is done, you can lift out the can tops with the tongs, not touching them with your fingers, to keep them sterile.
- Keep an eye on that pot!
- Skim off the foam if you like – my husband hangs around the kitchen at that point, and mixes the foam I take out with non fat plain yogurt – yummy!
- Once you like the thickness of the marmalade, turn off the heat and using a ladle, pour the mixture into canning jars until full, then screw on the tops (be careful not to burn yourself – hot sugar is very dangerous – I speak from experience and now I wear oven gloves for this part), and when they are cold the next day, screw the tops on tighter.
- I like to refrigerate my canning jars and have an extra fridge for the purpose, since we like our jams and marmalade’s cold.
- Enjoy over ice cream, yogurt or just eat it out of the jar with a spoon!
