Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Orange Marmalade

 
Of all things to be canning in September, I'm making Orange Marmalade.  Miss Morgan decided that she HAD to have oranges while we were shopping at Costco.  She loves fruit and I broke down and bought them.  They are definitely not local and also not in season, but I bowed to the pressure of the screaming 5 year old.  Hey, at least it wasn't candy and toys she was screaming about.  The problem was that when she ate one, she decided that she didn't like them anymore.  The rest of us ate a few and then I was still stuck with lots of fruit that would be going bad soon if I didn't do anything.  
So, marmalade it is.  I ended up making 2 batches. (I still have oranges left!)  They will be eaten, gifted or used in a few recipes that call for marmalade.  
I've never made marmalade before.  I've also never used Pomona Pectin before.  Its a pectin that allows you to use a fraction of the sugar in other jam recipes.  This recipe had 6 cups of fruit to 2 cups of sugar, or you have the option of using 1 cup of honey.  How cool is that?  The recipes use sugar, honey and fruit juice to sweeten, so its much better than the 7-8 cups of white sugar that you would normally use.  Each box is more expensive than other pectins, but you don't use the whole box for each batch.  You can get 2-4 batches of jam per box, so it does end up being about the same money.  So far I'm very happy with it.  The marmalade is jelling nicely and it has a nice taste, not too sweet. 
 
Now, I have marmalade to add to the many other jams and jellies I've made this year.  I don't think I need to make any for the next few years.

3 comments:

  1. My husband is like your five year old - he wanted that box of oranges. We are eating them though - so no marmalade in the plans.

    I have used the low sugar pectins before with about 50% success. I ended up with more batches of jam that did not set correctly than I do with a regular high sugar pectin - but the reduction in sugar was worth the lower success rate.

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  2. I cannot resist when my kids ask for healthy things. I have never said no to a bunch of bananas or fish or tomatoes or cheese..... *sigh*

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  3. Thank you for this post, I remembered at your house you mentioned this pectin and i could not remember what is was called. I was going to call you to ask, then i thought I would check your blog and whala! I am so going to buy some! Thanks for bing the guine pig for this product! (thanks Morgan too!)

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