Fruit picked and washed and ready to go
My first experience with marmalade – I spent ages researching this and eventually found some recipes that I thought sounded like the way that I cook.
Sliced, skinned and pith removed
TANGELO MARMALADE
Cloudy but tasty – don’t include the pith if you want clear marmalade
So good and so easy – I think I have got it down to something easy to manage that suits my method of cooking.
Ingredients
- About 8 to 10 tangelos
- 4 cups water (you need a fair bit of water because of the amount of time needed for simmering to get the peel to soften) It should have reduced by about 1/3 at the end of cooking
- sugar
- 1 tsp citric acid – gives a stronger flavour if the tangelos are late in the season and quite sweet (optional) or the juice of 2 lemons
Method
- Wash the tangelos well.
- Cut in half and extract the juice from all but 2 tangelos. Place this and some pulp into the pot (I use a large enamel pot for jam making). The remaining tangelos are slice thinly on the mandolin – this leaves some pith in the mix to assist with setting. The marmalade will be a little cloudy. If you would prefer a clear marmalade then just remove the zest from this fruit and tie the pith and seeds in a muslin bag during the cooking and remove it before bottling.
- Use a mandolin on a fine slice setting cut off the unmarked parts of the zest. Finely slice this zest and add to the pot.
- Turn on the heat and stir regularly until the skin is tender, about 1/2 hour. With the cast iron pot I bring it to a slow boil and stir for a while then turn off for a while so it cooks in the residual heat without overboiling, then heat up again and repeat – about 3 times. This is almost equivalent to a slow cook to tenderise the fruit.
- It can also be done in a pressure cooker.
- Some people take all the pith, pulp and seeds from the squeezing and tie it in a muslin bag and cook it with the mix to extract the pectin. Mine sets without this because I include the pith from two of the fruit.
- When the fruit is soft add the sugar – about 3/4 of the quantity of the fruit. Add slowly and stir to dissolve – taste (without burning your tongue) and add more sugar if necessary. Now is the time to add the citric acid if it seems to need a bit of a kick. Test for set. Bottle if ready.
- Place into sterilised jars – warmed at 150 in the oven or through the dishwasher, cover with silicone paper and a lid or a Fowlers Vacola seal and store when cold.