It’s peak season for citrus fruit, the perfect time of the year to make my favorite marmalade: navel orange and pink grapefruit.
What I love is its complex flavor, not only just the sweetness of the other jams but also a touch of tartness and a note of bitterness given by the little pieces of rind.
To make it is a labor of love – a lot of labor – but the reward is worthwhile: a spreadable delicacy to enjoy on your breakfast toast, on tarts, with cheese, on ice cream, or panna cotta.
Just make it and you’ll fall in love with it.
Ingredients:
(for 10 1/2 pint jars)
A Gf Df Ef V
- 6 organic red grapefruits
- organic navel oranges
- 6 cups of organic sugar
N.B. You will need two sharp knives, one for peeling the fruit (I use a utility knife) and another one to mince the rind (I use a Santoku)
Wash the fruit in hot water to get rid of any wax on the rind.
Peel the fruit. Start by cutting top and bottom in order to have a firm base, like in the picture.
Set aside the rind for later.
With a firm grip on the fruit and with a round motion top to bottom, remove the rest of the rind. Then trim any white pulp left.
While the skin between the sections of the oranges will melt while cooking, the one of the grapefruits is tough so I prefer to use only the pulp, which is easily removed.
Cut the fruit in half and remove the white core. Any white pulp you leave will make your marmalade too bitter.
Once you have peeled all the fruit, weight it on a kitchen scale. The amount of sugar you add depends on the weight, not the number of fruits, and should be 1/2 the weight of the pulp.
Add the sugar to the fruit in a big pot, stir well and wait 10-15 minutes to allow the sugar to absorb the juice from the fruit. Then cook on medium heat for about one hour. The cooking time depends of the juiciness of the fruit.
And don’t forget to stir often!
While you marmalade is cooking, prepare the rind to be added to it. This part will require skill and patience. Remove as much white pulp as you can with a sharp knife, like in the picture. Keep doing that until you have used half of the rind you have set apart.
Put two quarts of water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Now finely cut each section of cleaned rind.
Be careful: if you cannot see your fingertips, you cannot cut them.
Cook the chopped rind in the water for 5-7 minutes and drain. Repeat a second time with clean water. This will remove most of the bitterness.
Finally, add the cooked rinds to the marmalade and stir.
Remove any white foam that floats to the top because it will make your marmalade cloudy.
Keep cooking until the marmalade looks like in my picture, with small bubbles on its surface. It will still seem too liquid to be ready but it will get thicker in the jars.
Congratulations!
You have just made one of my most difficult recipes!
I like make lots of marmalade and can it. I sterilize my cans the day before, then fill them with the hot marmalade, put them in a big pot with a clean kitchen towel on the bottom, bring to a boil for a minimum of 20 minutes, and let jars cool down in the pot overnight. It’s a little bit of a chore but this way I am sure that my marmalade is safe to eat and lasts for many months.