Remember a week or so ago when I showed you all the oranges I bought on a whim on my way back from the beach in Ventura?
This must be at least 20 pounds of oranges. Maybe I went a little overboard and should have bought just one box. Some of these are “less than perfect” on the outside, but they are yummy on the inside!
The first thing I made with them is a delicious Orange Marmalade. To all you marmalade haters out there, let me ask a question. Have you ever had homemade marmalade? It is so orangy, so sweet yet so tart, so amazingly yummy that you may just like it if you try it. I used a recipe from the Ball Blue Book: Guide To Preserving. It is a simple and delicious recipe! The perfect balance between tart and sweet.
I had never made homemade orange marmalade before. I’d made blueberry marmalade, and I figured that this wouldn’t be that different. So, I pulled out my Ball canning book, found the recipe, and got started without reading the entire recipe. Guess what? It was different. My blueberry marmalade recipe had me cook the orange peel first with some baking soda. I think it was a 5-10 minute process for the peel, then I continued with the recipe. It was ready to can in less than an hour. I assumed this would be the same. It wasn’t.
I got started and realized I needed to cook it a little, and then let it sit for 12-18 hours before continuing. It was a very good thing that I started this at night, otherwise, I would have been making marmalade at midnight. (Though, that would have made a good blog post title.) Before I continue, let me share the recipe I used.
Lovely, Delicious Orange Marmalade (with a hint of lemon and lime) – YUM!
Orange Marmalade
Adapted from the Ball Blue Book: Guide To Preserving
2 cups thinly sliced orange, lemon, and lime peel (about 10 medium oranges or 8 oranges and a couple of lemons and limes)
1 quart (4 cups) chopped orange pulp (about 10 medium)
1 cup thinly sliced lemon and lime, seeded (about 2 medium lemons or 3 small lemons and 2 small limes)
2-3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
1 1/2 quarts (6 cups) water
6 1/2 cups sugar (may need to be adjusted for your batch, see instructions)
** Remember! Marmalade gets very hot. Take care that you do not get burned while you make it. Using canning tools makes it a lot easier. You may want to use gloves. **
Combine all ingredients, except sugar, in a large saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Cover and let stand for 12-18 hours in a cool place. Cook rapidly until rind is tender. Measure fruit and liquid. Add 1 cup of sugar for each cup of fruit mixture. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring sugar/fruit mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Cook rapidly until almost at gelling point (gelling point is 9 degrees Fahrenheit above the temperature at which water boils at your altitude). As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.
Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace (space between the top of the marmalade and the top of the jar). Using a wet paper towel, clean the rims of the jars to remove any marmalade and to ensure a good seal. Put seal on jar, then add ring. Tighten to “fingertip tight.” Do not over tighten! Process jars 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner, ensuring the jars are covered with at least 2 inches of water.
After processing, remove from canner with a jar lifter and set on a rack or dish towel to cool. Do not remove the rings (lids) yet! Wait at least 12-24 hours, then check the seal. If the jar is not sealed, you may put the marmalade in the fridge and use it as you would any jam/jelly/marmalade. Once jars are completely cool, and you’ve verified that the jars are sealed, and before storing, remove the rings from the jars. Label jars with contents and date. For best quality, use within 1 year. Most jam/jelly/marmalade is good for longer than 1 year, but the flavor is best if used within the year.
Let me show you what I did with a photo step-by-step.
First, I washed my jars, seals, and lids in warm soapy water. Then, I rinsed them well to remove any soap residue.
Next, I sterilized my jars. This is very important when using a water bath canner. To sterilize the jars, I put them into my water bath canner and covered them with water. Then I turned on the heat and let the water come to a full boil. Once the water was boiling, I boiled the jars for 10 minutes. Then, I turned down the heat to keep the jars hot until I was ready to use them.
Next, I gathered my fruit and began to prep it.
I thinly sliced the orange, lemon, and lime peel. The majority of the peel in this was orange peel. I chopped up the fruit from the oranges, lemons, and limes.
It took me a little longer than I thought to prep this (about 30 minutes), lemons, and limes), but that is partly because I was using pretty small oranges. I added a couple extra tablespoons of bottled lemon juice to my lemon/lime mixture (the smallest measuring cup).
I added everything, except for the sugar, to the pan and turned on the heat. Then I looked at the instructions again and realized that this needed to simmer and then sit for 12-18 hours. So I simmered the orange mixture and turned the heat off on my water bath canner containing the jars.
After simmering for 5 minutes, it looked like this. I put the lid on the pot and set it in a cool place for 12-18 hours.
Here’s the marmalade mixture (minus the sugar) after sitting for about 16 hours.
I poured in into a large measuring cup (it’s more of a pitcher, isn’t it?). and it measured 6 1/2 cups. So, I added 6 1/2 cups of sugar.
I poured it back into the pot, added the sugar and turned on the heat.
Meanwhile, I turned the heat on again for my water bath canner to heat up my jars.
I also put my seals in water in a small pot on the stove and turned the heat on low. This is done to soften the wax seal, but it is important not to boil these!
I also got my “tools” ready. From bottom to top, the tools are: a jar lifter, a measuring guide/bubble remover, a lid lifter, and a funnel. I also have extra seals and lids in case I need them.
Pretty soon, the fruit/sugar mixture was at a full boil.
And, as often happens when I cook, I burned myself. This mixture does not “spit” as much as others, but I did get hit by two little drops during the cooking process. It would have been smart to wear gloves, because this is me, but I didn’t. I just held some ice on the tiny burn on my finger while I continued to stir constantly.
It took a little more than 15 minutes to almost reach the gelling point. I used a candy thermometer, because it makes it easier for me, but I also used the “spoon method.”
To use the spoon method, simply put a spoon in your freezer and get it really cold. I put a couple of spoons in the freezer before I started the jam. Then I asked my son to remove them when I needed to test the marmalade. I simply put the cold spoon in the marmalade and removed it from the pan. Then I let it sit for a minute to cool just a tad bit. Next, I turned the spoon to the side to see how the texture of the marmalade as I tipped the spoon to the side. It is ready here, because instead of having a texture like syrup, in a long stream, it is a little thicker and comes off more like drops of liquid. Since it was ready, I turned off the heat and got ready to can the marmalade.
Using my jar lifter, I removed my hot jars from the water bath canner.
I put them on a rack, then I placed my funnel inside one of the jars and ladled in the hot marmalade. As the marmalade gets near the top of the jar, I lift the funnel just a bit, but that is not required. I think it keeps the rim of my jars a bit cleaner when I put the funnel into a clean jar.
I checked the head space with a handy tool that came with my canning kit to ensure it was 1/4 inch. The head space is the space between the top of the food and liquid in your jar and the top of the rim. I highly recommend getting a canning kit if you intend to can foods. It makes it so much easier. Amazon sells on that is quite good here.
I cleaned the rims of the jars with a wet paper towel to ensure that there was no marmalade on the rim. If the rims aren’t clean, you won’t get a good seal on your jar, and it won’t stay fresh. It doesn’t take very long, but this is a VERY important step. Once the rims are clean, carefully remove the seals from the hot water (a lid lifter is very handy for this task). Then place one seal on each jar. Next, screw the ring onto the jar until fingertip tight.
It was described to me that this means that you tighten the ring with your fingertips only to ensure you do not over tighten!
At this point, the jars are ready for the water bath canner. I used my jar lifter to move them. The jars are pretty hot, so be careful! You can use pretty much any pot if it meets the following criteria: you have a rack in the bottom so the jars do not come in direct contact with the bottom of the pot, there is enough room that the jars won’t touch each other, and the pot is deep enough that your jars are covered with at least 2 inches of water (above the top of the jars). If you don’t have a pan that you think will work well, Amazon sells one with a canning starter kit here.
Once all my jars were carefully placed in my water bath canner, making sure the jars did not touch, I pout the lid on the pot and turned the heat on high. When the water reached a full rolling boil, I started my timer and let the pot boil for 10 full minutes. If you are canning and the water cools so it stops boiling, you need to start over (with your timing). The jars must be processed at a full rolling boil for at least 10 minutes to ensure any bacteria is killed during the canning process.
I had a little extra marmalade, so I set it aside in a little bowl. Thought you might want to take a look at it.
When the full 10 minutes had passed, I turned the stove off and removed the jars from the canner with my jar lifter. The jars are very, very hot! Please take care to ensure you do not get burned!
I set my jars aside and let them cool overnight. Then I checked the seals in the morning to ensure that each jar was truly sealed.
And here are my lovely jars! Notice anything? One is missing. It was one of my dear friend’s birthday yesterday, and she loves marmalade. How could I not share a jar?
For my next batch of marmalade, I’m going to try a recipe which uses baking soda with the orange peel. I’ll taste both and let you know how they compare. Although, I’m seriously tempted to stick with this recipe. It’s super yummy!
Have you ever canned anything? If not, do you want to learn how?
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