More Marmalade

Although I have made quite a bit of marmalade this year it seems to be disappearing at a great rate. I really miss not having the citrus trees in the garden with the luxury of being able to pick the fruit whenever the mood takes. However citrus and grapefruit, in particular, have been plentiful as well as cheap this year. I even managed to find some Seville oranges and what a beautiful marmalade they made.

Anyway, I bought 3 enormous red grapefruit earlier this week plus the three extra lemons which will ensure setting is no problem.

It is a long time since I have consulted a recipe book for a recipe for marmalade. Today was no exception. However in the interest of this blog I did measure the water rather than say add water to cover -my usual method!

I cut up the 3 grapefruit and soaked them in 2 litres of water overnight.

Tomorrow I will cook the pulp until soft . (For grapefruit this can take up to 45 minutes or even an hour.) Allow to cool.

Measure this pulp and liquid. Heat 3/4 to 7/8 of that quantity of sugar in a 100 degree oven. (At the same time I put the glass jars in the oven to heat as well as some saucers into the refrigerator for testing). I find we prefer less sugar than most recipes .

When the pulp returns to the boil I add the heated sugar and the juice of 3 lemons and continue to boil vigorously until some syrup dripped onto a saucer and cooled in the freezer for 5 minutes wrinkles when pushed with a finger.

Pour into the heated jars and seal.

I seal the jars using the microwave . However for accuracy sake I will dig out the reference before tomorrow.