I’ve always been on the fence about marmalade. Some commercial marmamalades are too tart, some are too bitter, and some are too sweet. There are hardly any that I could find that I really truely liked. So, when I recieved Eugenia Bone’s book Well-Preserved, it surprised me that I really wanted to try her Three Citrus Marmalade. It sounded so good on the page. Yes, the very first jam I ever made was a marmalade (what can I say? I’m an overachiever!). It was hell. I stayed up until 4 am making it…but you know what? The next day when I tried some of the excess marmalade with toast, it was amazing. The. Best. Marmalade. Ever. Having a mix of three different citrus really balances out the individual strong flavors of all the citrus. I really want you to make this marmalade. Really.
The name of the marmalade says it all: Three Citrus. You can use any three citrus you want just be sure to use oranges and lemons. You can use ruby red grapefruit, seville oranges, navel oranges, cara-cara oranges, meyer lemons, ponderosa lemons, etc; as long as you stay with the ratio 1 grapefruit: 3 oranges: 2 lemons For this batch, I used a pomelo, 3 navel oranges, and 2 lemons. The easiest way to make this marmalade is in two days. If you break it down into two days, you won’t be up until the wee hours of the morning finishing the marmalade.
In a medium pot, add the slivers of rind and cover with 3 cups of water. Cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes. Do not drain.
You will cut the citrus in half across the equator and pop out any seeds. Using your food processor, blend up the citrus into a pulp. At this point you want to measure your pulp. However much pulp you end up with, you will add that much sugar on day 2. I had 4 cups of pulp.
Pour this pulp into the pot with the rinds and water. You will stir this up, cover, and put in the fridge overnight.
On day two, transfer the pulp mixture into a wide heavy pot. Add the sugar in accordance with how many cups of pulp you ended up with the night before (I added 3 cups, 4 cups is just too sweet for me) and a teaspoon of butter (the butter will help the marmalade from foaming up). Cook over medium low heat until your candy thermometer reaches 220 degrees.
You will need to prepare at least 4 half pint jars. I always have extra with this recipe, however, so I always prepare 5-6 half pints. I ended up with 5 half pints and an 1/8 of a cup that I poured in a ramekin to put in the fridge. Process using BWB for 10 minutes
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Peel citrus in as big of pieces as possible. Cut most of the white pith off of the rind. Cut the rind, alternating between citrus peel, into little match stick until you have 1 cup. Pour rind into a medium pot, cover the rind with 3 cups of water and cook at medium high heat for 25 minutes. Do not drain.
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Cut the citrus in half across the equator, pop out the seeds, and grind in your food processor until you have a thick consistent pulp.
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Measure the pulp and take a mental note of how many cups you had.
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Pour the pulp into the pot with the citrus rinds, cover, and put in fridge to rest overnight
- Prepare 6 half pint jars per “Kitchen Tactics: Boiling Water Bath Canning”
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Pour pulp mixture into large, wide pot. Add 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of pulp.
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Add 1 teaspoon of butter
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Cook over medium low heat until candy thermometer reaches 220.
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Pour into prepared half pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.
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Process for 10 minutes