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Prep Time: 180 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Minutes |
Ready In: 181 Minutes Servings: 6 |
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Though real marmalade must supposedly be made using Seville oranges, I have only seen them in the market once, ever! And that was at Central Market, a very posh, highly yuppified, super-dooper market in Houston TX, so I came up with this recipe using naval oranges. It's actually my combination of a number of features from a half dozen other marmalade recipes. Prep-time does not include 24 hours setting time for fruit mixture. Ingredients:
6 -7 large juicy navel oranges |
3 -4 large juicy lemons |
1 cup granulated sugar, plus |
4 lbs granulated sugar, plus |
more granulated sugar, divided,to taste |
1 cup water, plus |
5 cups water, divided |
1 cup dry white wine |
2 -3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice |
1 -3 teaspoon citric acid (citric acid granules) or 1 -3 lime, juice of (optional) |
1 box ball fruit jell pectin or 1 box other no-sugar needed pectin |
Directions:
1. Equipment you will need: 1 Large plastic bowl with lid; 1 Large nonreactive Dutch oven; 1 Water-bath processor or very large stock pot with a rack to keep jars off bottom of pot; 1 Pair jar-lifting tongs (optional, but very handy); 1 Magnetic lid lifter (optional, but very handy); 14-15 Half-pint or 7 1-pint canning jars with threaded rings and new lids.
2. Cut the zest (the thin orange portion of the peel) from all of the oranges using a vegetable peeler or sharp paring knife (about 1/16 thick or less and about 3/4 wide).
3. Cut the zest into thin strips about 1/16 wide, and set aside.
4. Using a micro-plane or regular grater, grate the zest from the lemons, and add to the orange zest.
5. Peel the oranges and lemons with a sharp knife, removing most of the thin outer membrane from the fruit, as well as the white portion of the peel.
6. Cut the flesh of the lemons and oranges into 1/4 thick slices, remove seeds as necessary, chop into 1/4 pieces, saving as much juice as possible, and place in a large plastic bowl.
7. If desired, mash the fruit just a little bit using a potato masher, but you want it to stay fairly chunky.
8. In a medium saucepan, combine the 1 cup water, white wine, lemon juice, and sugar over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved.
9. Add the orange and lemon zest, and stir to combine.
10. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a good simmer, and cook until zest strips are fairly tender.
11. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.
12. Add zest mixture and 5 cups of water to fruit, stir to combine, cover tightly, and refrigerate or set in a cool place for 24 hours or a little longer.
13. This aging is mandatory for flavor development.
14. Before starting to actually make the marmalade, assemble all necessary equipment.
15. Fill a water bath or very large stock pot with enough hot water to cover jars by at least 1-2 .
16. Jars can be stacked, if necessary, while processing.
17. It will probably take longer to heat the water than to prepare the marmalade, so give it a good head start.
18. Sterilize canning jars by running them through a full hot-cycle of the dishwasher, or wash in hot, soapy water, rinse well, and drain.
19. In either case, transfer the jars to a 250 degee F oven until ready to fill them.
20. Place new canning lids in a small saucepan of boiling water until needed.
21. You should have between 9 and 10 pounds (18-20 pints) of fruit and zest mixture at this point, but this will reduce down to 7+ pounds (14-15 pints) during cooking.
22. Transfer fruit and zest mixture to a large, nonreactive Dutch oven over high heat, and bring to a full boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan regularly to prevent scorching.
23. Taste, and adjust tartness to taste using sour salt or lime juice (sour salt, 1 Tsp at a time, is easiest), and adjust sweetness to taste with additional sugar.
24. Continue to boil, stirring and scraping bottom regularly to prevent scorching, until mixture reaches a temperature of 220 degrees F on a instant-reading or candy thermometer (actually, 8 degrees F above the boiling point of water at your elevation).
25. Stir in the'no-sugar required pectin', and continue to boil for 1 minute longer, remove from heat, and allow to set for 2-3 minutes; setting helps solids to stay in suspension instead of sinking to the bottom of the jars.
26. Stir marmalade well, and ladle into sterilized canning jars to within 1/8 of the rim.
27. Clean the rim and threads of each jar with a dampened paper towel, top with sterilized new lids, screw on threaded rings, and tighten hand-tight.
28. Immediately transfer to a water bath with enough boiling water to cover jars by at least 1-2 .
29. Process for 10 minutes, starting timing when water returns to a boil.
30. Remove jars from water bath, invert onto a kitchen towel, and allow to set without disturbing until cooled completely.
31. Turn jars over, and press down on each lid.
32. If it does not pop up and down with pressure, the jar is sealed and can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
33. Jars with lids that do pop up and down have not sealed properly and should be refrigerated and used first.
34. Makes about 14-15 half-pint or 7 1-pint jars, with a little extra for the fridge.
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