citrus marmalade

I love me some marmalade. Last year I made my first batch from some oranges on our tree. It was okay. This year, I tried a batch with grapefruit from my parents' trees. It was good, and different. I also made a batch with both grapefruit and orange. It was amazing.

Since it's hard to come by anything but just orange marmalade in this country, here's the recipe I used in case you want to try another citrus marmalade. It sounds complicated, but it's surprisingly easy once you know a few tricks. (Seriously, the grapefruit sat on my counter for at least a week because I dreaded having to remove the membrane (an act called "supreming") and had no idea how to do it.)

Grapefruit/Citrus Marmalade
modified from a recipe I found somewhere online

Note: This will take 2 days.

Ingredients

a pile of grapefruit or other citrus (basically you need enough to create 2 cups thinly sliced peel and 4 cups juice and fruit w/o membranes)
1 quart water
2 cups sugar
4 1/2 tsp pectin and 3 tsp calcium water (I use Pomona)

Instructions

Thoroughly wash fruit. Skin the fruit without taking too much pith, and set the skins aside. Cut off the remaining pith. Supreme the fruit and place supremes in a measuring cup with any juice you can capture. I also fully juiced some grapefruits to add in to the cup. Set aside.

For a great tutorial on how to supreme citrus, see here.

Thinly slice the fruit skins, and cut in half (or don't if you prefer chunkier marmalade). Place 2 cups sliced skins in a large, nonreactive pot and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes. Discard water.

Add fruit and juice, and 2 cups water. Boil another 10 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and set aside in a cool place for 12-18 hours.

The next day, heat the fruit to boiling again. Add 1 cup sugar and stir until it dissolves. Continue to cook at a boil, stirring frequently, for 30-60 minutes. Add pectin to the remaining 1 cup sugar and stir. Add pectin-sugar mix and calcium water to the fruit and continue to cook until the fruit reduces and thickens to a nice jammy consistency. Check for set by dropping a spoonful on a plate that has been cooled in your freezer.

Fill sterilized jars and boil in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. I got about 4 or 5 half-pint jars out of this recipe.

Experiment with different fruits! My favorite so far is the orange-grapefruit blend; I used skins from both, orange supremes, and grapefruit juice. It would be fun also to try lime. Maybe an orange-lime blend with a kick of ginger or lemongrass? Hmmm... I may have to look into that one for next year.

Happy jamming!