This is a recipe from my old pre-celiac diagnosis cooking blog: SarasKitchenChemistry.com. I love digging up these oldies but goodies!
Let me start off by saying that no matter how many times I perform this procedure, I never remember just how darn sticky and NOISY a jam making operation is. Why noisy you ask? Well try out the recipe and you’ll soon find out what a racket boiling jars of marmalade can make.
Ingredients
6-7 Meyer lemons 1 large ginger root 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups water 6 cups sugar (I used organic)
Equipment Needed 8 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings 1 large stock pot 1 large sauce pot 1 jar lifter 1 canning funnel 1 ladle 1 pair tongs 1 whisk 2 kitchen towels
Directions
Wash your jars, lids rings with hot soapy water. Place jars in a large stockpot and cover with water 1 inch over the rims. Place a small plate in the freezer. Bring the water to a boil to sterilize the jars and boil for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat and put the lids and rings into the hot water. Let the jars, lids and rings sit in the hot bath while you prepare the marmalade.
Thoroughly wash the lemons and ginger root. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the zest off the lemons, carefully avoiding the dreaded bitter white pith. I gave into my bitter marmalade paranoia and decided to scrape more the of pith from the zest.
Slice the pieces of zest into strips. Why not just use a lemon zester? Because the zest pieces will simple disintegrate in the cooking process, you’ll need bigger pieces to get the real marmalade feeling. Slice the ends off the zested lemons and peel off the remaining white pith.
Remove the pulp from the lemons, discarding as much of the membrane as possible. There are many ways of doing this, but I found the most efficient method is to cut each lemon in half and scoop it out with your hands over the pot you plan to use. You should end up with 1-1/2 – 2 cups of pulp and juice.
Next peel and shred the ginger, using the smallest grate. Put the zest, lemon pulp, ginger, baking soda and 2 cups of water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, cover and turn down heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, using a jar lifter, remove the sterilized jars from the stock pot and place on a towel.
Whisk the fruit pectin into the lemon mixture, stirring constantly.
Stir in all of the sugar at once, bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. You can test the gel of the marmalade by dripping a little on the cold plate you had in the freezer. If it sets up almost instantly, then it’s done, if not, boil for another minute and test again.
Skim off the foam from the hot marmalade and using a ladle, pour into the warm sterilized jars, leaving 1/4″ of room at the top of each jar. Hint: Use a canning funnel, I use Great Grandma’s trusty funnel.
Using a moist paper towel, carefully clean the rims of the jars so there is no marmalade there whatsoever. This will help to ensure the seal. Place the lids on top, followed by the rings.
Using the jar lifter again, return the jars to the stock pot with hot water and bring to a boil. Cover and process for 10 minutes. Allow the jars to sit in the water for an additional 5-10 minutes and remove to a clean kitchen towel to cool for 24 hours. You should hear the lids on the jars “popping” as they seal. It shouldn’t take more than 1 hour for all of them to “pop”. If you suspect that one or any of them have not sealed properly, you can either keep that jar or jars in the fridge, or remove all the marmalade, re-sterilize and reprocess. Ugh. Better to get it right the first time.
Try not to hoard it from your family members or friends!
