Can Jam Bo Bam Banana Fana Foo Fam
I'm doing the Can Jam! This month's theme was citrus, so I pulled out my much beloved copy of Well Preserved and gave it a shot.
The recipe:
1 grapefruit (ruby red preferred)
3 oranges (blood orange preferred)
3 Meyer lemons
5 cups sugar
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
Peel all fruits and remove as much pith from the fruit as possible without injuring yourself or the fruit. Remove the pith from 1 orange and 2 lemon rinds and matchstick the rind. You should have about 1 cup. Place in three cups water and cook on medium heat for approximately 25 minutes or until soft. Cool.
While this is going on, halve the fruits and pop out the seeds. Blend in food processor until still chunky but mostly juice. You should have approximately 5 cups. Add this to the now cool rinds in water and let rest in refrigerator, covered, for two hours.
Heat over medium heat adding 1 cup sugar per cup of pulp (so 5 cups sugar for the 5 cups of pulp) and butter. Skim off foam. Once the mixture is boiling, let it simmer for half an hour, skimming off foam and stirring occasionally. The marmalade is ready when it reaches 220*. If you don't have a candy thermometer, take out a spoonful, let cool and then push on it. If it wrinkles, you're good.
Sterilize 4 half pint jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove and fill jars with jam, leaving 1/2-3/4" headspace. Wipe rims, add lids and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5. Remove to cool, untouched, for 4-6 hours.
The Process:
There are times when I trust a recipe, times when I don't, and times when I wish I had. I wish I had trusted the recipe on this. 1 grapefruit, 3 lemons and 3 oranges made approximately 3 cups of pulp. Instead of just following the instructions and making a smaller batch, I blended another 2 oranges (valencia, not blood) that I had laying around and another lemon to make 5 cups of pulp. Then I added the pulp to the still warm rinds and water. At this point, it was 10pm, so I decided to wait until the next day (today) and make it then. At 11:30 this morning, I put 5 cups of sugar (the last 5 cups we had in the house, too!!) in the pot, stirred it around and put it on medium heat.
Half an hour later (the supposed medium heat cooking time), we had just reached simmering. An hour after that, the jars and lids had been simmering for half an hour. Despite getting 217* on the thermometer, I got a fairly decent wrinkle on the jam, said 'screw it' and put it in jars to process. By the way, I had literally 4 canning lids and 4 1/2 pint jars left, so I thought this would work perfectly.
Marmalade in Canning Pot
Originally uploaded by kestrel127
After I put those 4 jars in to process, I put the remainder in 2 pint jars I had around and filled about half of a third. Since I now need to buy lids anyway, I'll probably get some smaller lids and process the rest in 1/4 pint jars to give away. The jars sealed within a couple minutes of getting out of the water bath (yay!) and I just put them in the pantry downstairs.
Canned but unsealed
Originally uploaded by kestrel127
The Verdict
The blood oranges and the ruby red grapefruit make this a lovely pink color.
I think I should have cooked the marmalade longer. It's a little runny. The recipe indicates it's supposed to be a runny marmalade, but I think this might be a little too runny. Guess I'll let it simmer for a little while before processing the remainder.
And I wish I had trusted the recipe and not added those two extra oranges and the lemon. I didn't need it and that's where all my excess came from. I also wouldn't have run out of sugar making it (I ended up raiding the sugar bowl and dipping into my turbinado sugar to make up the difference!) if I'd stayed with the three cups I have. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted (didn't have unsalted) - not sure if that made a difference or not.
But how does it taste? Well, I haven't had the chance to put it on toast yet, but it tastes damn good. Tart but sweet at the same time, with chunks of fruit for texture and bits of rind for a different taste and sensation. It's fun to eat. And the thing I love most about Well Preserved is that Ms. Bone gives you recipes to use the marmalade with! She recommends putting it on chicken as a marinade and... a couple others I don't remember.
The result is really good and I can't wait to eat it!
The recipe:
1 grapefruit (ruby red preferred)
3 oranges (blood orange preferred)
3 Meyer lemons
5 cups sugar
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
Peel all fruits and remove as much pith from the fruit as possible without injuring yourself or the fruit. Remove the pith from 1 orange and 2 lemon rinds and matchstick the rind. You should have about 1 cup. Place in three cups water and cook on medium heat for approximately 25 minutes or until soft. Cool.
While this is going on, halve the fruits and pop out the seeds. Blend in food processor until still chunky but mostly juice. You should have approximately 5 cups. Add this to the now cool rinds in water and let rest in refrigerator, covered, for two hours.
Heat over medium heat adding 1 cup sugar per cup of pulp (so 5 cups sugar for the 5 cups of pulp) and butter. Skim off foam. Once the mixture is boiling, let it simmer for half an hour, skimming off foam and stirring occasionally. The marmalade is ready when it reaches 220*. If you don't have a candy thermometer, take out a spoonful, let cool and then push on it. If it wrinkles, you're good.
Sterilize 4 half pint jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove and fill jars with jam, leaving 1/2-3/4" headspace. Wipe rims, add lids and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5. Remove to cool, untouched, for 4-6 hours.
The Process:
There are times when I trust a recipe, times when I don't, and times when I wish I had. I wish I had trusted the recipe on this. 1 grapefruit, 3 lemons and 3 oranges made approximately 3 cups of pulp. Instead of just following the instructions and making a smaller batch, I blended another 2 oranges (valencia, not blood) that I had laying around and another lemon to make 5 cups of pulp. Then I added the pulp to the still warm rinds and water. At this point, it was 10pm, so I decided to wait until the next day (today) and make it then. At 11:30 this morning, I put 5 cups of sugar (the last 5 cups we had in the house, too!!) in the pot, stirred it around and put it on medium heat.
Half an hour later (the supposed medium heat cooking time), we had just reached simmering. An hour after that, the jars and lids had been simmering for half an hour. Despite getting 217* on the thermometer, I got a fairly decent wrinkle on the jam, said 'screw it' and put it in jars to process. By the way, I had literally 4 canning lids and 4 1/2 pint jars left, so I thought this would work perfectly.
Marmalade in Canning Pot
Originally uploaded by kestrel127
After I put those 4 jars in to process, I put the remainder in 2 pint jars I had around and filled about half of a third. Since I now need to buy lids anyway, I'll probably get some smaller lids and process the rest in 1/4 pint jars to give away. The jars sealed within a couple minutes of getting out of the water bath (yay!) and I just put them in the pantry downstairs.
Canned but unsealed
Originally uploaded by kestrel127
The Verdict
The blood oranges and the ruby red grapefruit make this a lovely pink color.
I think I should have cooked the marmalade longer. It's a little runny. The recipe indicates it's supposed to be a runny marmalade, but I think this might be a little too runny. Guess I'll let it simmer for a little while before processing the remainder.
And I wish I had trusted the recipe and not added those two extra oranges and the lemon. I didn't need it and that's where all my excess came from. I also wouldn't have run out of sugar making it (I ended up raiding the sugar bowl and dipping into my turbinado sugar to make up the difference!) if I'd stayed with the three cups I have. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted (didn't have unsalted) - not sure if that made a difference or not.
But how does it taste? Well, I haven't had the chance to put it on toast yet, but it tastes damn good. Tart but sweet at the same time, with chunks of fruit for texture and bits of rind for a different taste and sensation. It's fun to eat. And the thing I love most about Well Preserved is that Ms. Bone gives you recipes to use the marmalade with! She recommends putting it on chicken as a marinade and... a couple others I don't remember.
The result is really good and I can't wait to eat it!