Orange Marmalade

After a failed batch of trying to make apple sauce with apples from my Frankenstein tree, I decided to make a marmalade (a citrus jam made from fruit flesh and peel) using Satsuma oranges. I chose these oranges because they have a relatively smooth skin, the peel is bright orange and it has a nice fragrance. They are also very easy to peel after having been peeled with a vegetable peeler. I made candied orange peels earlier in the day. 

After having read Ina Garten's recipe on Food Network, I realized that her no-pectin version had water and sugar as a simple syrup ratio. Her two hour simmering time is to reduce the water in the jam liquid. I halved her water/sugar ratio to just four cups each. The Satsuma oranges are really sweet on their own. And, instead of adding whole lemons, I used just the juice of two fresh lemons.

You can make your own liquid pectin from boiling the peel and pith of oranges or lemons, or green apple peels, in water. Read more about homemade citrus pectin on this link.

Ingredients

3 lbs (6 large) Satsuma oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
4 c simple sugar syrup (4 c water + 4 c sugar)
prepared orange peels (from 4 oranges)
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2 large lemons)

Directions

1. Prepare orange peels by using a non-serrated vegetable peeler to remove orange part of peel from oranges. Thinly slice peels with a sharp knife. Put peels in a pot and cover it with enough water to cover the peels. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes. Drain water and set peels aside.

2. In a separate pot, combine 4 cups of water with 4 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil and stir so that all the sugar dissolves. Add sliced oranges and simmer on low heat for 2 hours, or until the liquid volume has reduced by half. 

The temperature will drop to 180-200 degrees F while it simmers. Stir occasionally and skim off the foam.

3. Add prepared orange peels, bring to a boil and heat the mixture up to 220 degrees F. Cook for 10 minutes.  The peels should turn almost translucent at the soft ball stage. Remove from heat and fill sterilized pint or half pint jars.

4. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 3 pints or 6 half pints.

Pomelo Marmalade

Wikipedia tells us that "marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water." The very statement suggests, no wait.. encourages, that any citrus fruit could be used as the added peel to a jam recipe. Say for example, a pomelo.

Why a pomelo? The fruit is very common to Chinese food festivals such as New Year's Day, the real one (Jan 23, 2012). I saw a pomelo recently and thought about what else one could do with a pomelo besides eating it like a grapefruit. I read a few grapefruit recipes and have cobbled this particular one together.

Here's how it would go down...

1 large pomelo

2 Meyer lemons

2 oranges (1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice)

2 c. water

4 c. granulated sugar

a pinch of Mexican saffron, optional (for color)

Some citrus peels have a high pectin content. This is what makes marmalade gel without added pectin.

1. Fill canner (or a very large pot) with water and bring it to a boil. Wash jars and lids. Put jars on a cookie sheet in the oven at 150 degrees until ready to use them. Put the lids in a bowl and cover with boiling water.

2. Wash fruits thoroughly.

3. Peel pomelo, lemons, and oranges with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler. Be sure to just remove the skin of the fruit, not the white pith. Julienne the pomelo, lemon, and orange rind into strips. 

4. Separate the fruit from the membrane and discard the membrane and seeds. Chop the fruit wedges into small pieces and put them into a heavy bottomed pot.

5. Simmer rind, chopped fruit, saffron, fruit juices and water over high heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover pot and let it cool overnight.

6. Next day, add sugar to pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir occassionally until the candy thermometer reads 215-220 degrees F. At 215 degrees F, the sugar syrup may be pulled into brittle threads between the fingers. I'm not sure why you'd want to test it this way since the sugar is very hot. At 220 degrees F, when a cool metal spoon is dipped into the syrup then raised, the syrup runs off in drops which merge to form a sheet. (Read more about the various boiling stages of sugar syrup).

7. Remove from heat. Skim foam off and ladle into sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/4" inch head space. Wipe rims, seal jars, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

8. Remove jars from water bath. Let cool for 12 hours. Label and store in a cool, dark place.

Makes 4 half-pint jars.