recipe
Jams and Jellies

Traditional Marmalade

Cutting fruit into paper-thin slices is one of the secrets to making delicious spreadable marmalade. Thin slices, especially for limes which tend to be tough, reduces the cooking time required to tenderize the peel.

Yield:

Makes about 7 x 250 ml jars

Prep Time:

60 minutes

Processing Time:

10 Minutes

Difficulty:

Expert

Ingredients:

  • 2 limes
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 grapefruit, small
  • 3 cups (750 ml) water
  • 8 cup (2000 ml) granulated sugar

Directions:


  • Place 7 clean 250 ml mason jars on a rack in a boiling water canner. Cover jars with water and heat to a simmer (180°F/82°C). Set screw bands aside. Keep jars hot until ready to use.

  • Preheating Bernardin® lids is not advised. The sealing compound used for our home canning lids performs better at room temperature than it does pre-heated in simmering water (180°F). Simply wash lids in hot, soapy water, dry, and set aside until needed. Preheating can lead to less vacuum being achieved during water bath canning, and to buckle failures during pressure canning.

  • Wash and halve citrus fruit lengthwise; remove and discard seeds. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice across fruit creating paper-thin slices; cut into equal sized pieces about 1 inch (2.5 cm). Place fruit in a large stainless steel saucepan; add water. Bring to a boil; cover and boil gently until peel is tender, about 45 minutes.

  • Measure sugar; set aside.

  • Gradually add sugar, stirring until dissolved. If desired, add 1/2 tsp (2 ml) butter or margarine to reduce foaming. Stirring frequently, bring to a boil over high heat; boil, uncovered, until mixture reaches gel stage, about 1 hour. Remove from heat; skim foam. (Gel test: Remove mixture from heat. Place a spoonful of mixture on plate in freezer for a few minutes; mixture is gelled when it does not run together when separated.)

  • Quickly ladle hot marmalade into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) of top of jar (headspace). Using nonmetallic utensil, remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness. Centre sealing disc on clean jar rim. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight. Return filled jar to rack in canner ensuring jars are covered by water. Repeat for remaining marmalade.

  • When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch (2.5 cm) of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. At altitudes up to 1000 ft (305 m), process –boil filled jars – 10 minutes.

  • When processing time is complete, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on a protected work surface. Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours; DO NOT RETIGHTEN screw bands.

  • After cooling check jar seals. Sealed discs curve downward and do not move when pressed. Remove screw bands; wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. For best quality, use home canned foods within one year.

PRINTER FRIENDLY RECIPE

www.bernardin.ca
A subsidiary of Newell Brands Canada ULC

Reviews

September 3, 2017

Sabina

New Brunswick

I really enjoyed making this, and the end product is acceptable - good, even - but a bit too bitter and a bit too hard.

I used a large grapefruit instead of a small one, thinking that would be okay since my limes and lemons were small, but I would advise against this. I'm pretty sure it's the grapefruit that has made the marmalade too bitter.

Also, my marmalade reached the gel stage at 25 minutes, or maybe even earlier. I wasn't even ready to check it yet at 25 minutes, since the recipe says it should take an hour, but I noticed the mixture starting to gel on the plate where i was laying the mixing spoon, so I stopped the boiling early. I haven't opened any of the jars yet, but the bit of leftover marmalade that went in the fridge is almost as hard as a gummy candy. I'm new to jam-making, so I'm not sure why this is, but I would guess I overcooked it. Maybe I should blame this on the grapefruit, too, but I wonder if the hour-long boiling time in the recipe is a mistake, though. Even forgetting the time required to cut up the fruit, wash the jars, and bring everything up to boiling, the times listed at the top of the recipe and the times listed in the recipe don't match up. The recipe itself asks for 45 minutes of boiling the fruit, 1 hour of boiling the marmalade, 10 minutes of water bath processing, and 5 minutes of cooling, but the top of the recipe only says 10 minutes of processing and 1 hour of prep.

One more thing: I would have appreciated more detailed instructions on how to cut up the fruit. I cut it up just fine for my liking, but "paper thin" doesn't seem possible without decades of practice or some type of machine.

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