Citrus Marmalade

One of Shane's favorite things is marmalade. When I asked him if he had any requests for canning this year all he asked for was marmalade.

I thought it might be fun to try a couple different variations to see if we can perfect our family favorite. First up is this Three Citrus Marmalade from Marisa at Food In Jars.

This recipe calls for grapefruit, navel oranges, and lemons to create a slightly more bitter marmalade. I used a peeler to get all the zest off the citrus and then minced it into fine little strips. The zest was boiled for a bit while I removed all the rine, seeds, and membranes from the remaining fruit. Then the zest pieces, 4 cups of the zest liquid, 6 cups of sugar, all the fruit pieces, and a packet of pectin were put in a large pot to boil. The original recipe has you keep all the membranes and seeds to extract the pectin. Simply place all the leftover pieces in a cheesecloth and place it in your marmalade as it cooks. Then discard the bundle before you place your jam in jars. However, I did not have any cheesecloth handy so I simply added the pectin instead.

My first try at the recipe did not set up so we ended up with a bunch of marmalade syrup. The following day I opened all the jars back up and cooked the jam up again. This time I made sure to get the marmalade up to 220 degrees and cook it there for 3 minutes before placing it back into clean, sterilized jars. In the future I just need to remember that citrus doesn't have a lot of pectin so I need to take care to make sure it gets all the way up to temperature. Of course, extracting the pectin naturally from the seeds and membranes of the fruit would also helped with this.

We did keep one pint of syrup to use over french toast or for yogurt parfaits. I think we might have to make some homemade ice cream to try with it soon. The jam tastes so perfectly sweet and bitter on toast. I think it would also be amazing on biscuits so I think I'll be making some soon.

Do you have any favorite marmalade recipes we should try?