After a brief break from jam-making to indulge in holiday festivities, I have decided to start the year with a challenge: marmalade! The process of making marmalade is complex and takes several days to perform correctly. Jam makers suggest a range of techniques. I have examined several cookbooks and come up with a composite method that is both thorough and also time-efficient.
Day One
The evening before cooking, I cut the lemons into small, bite sized portions. During the cutting process, I removed all the pits. I then put the lemon pieces in a stainless steel bowl, filled the bowl with water and covered the bowl, leaving the cut lemons to soak overnight.
Day 2
I let the lemon pieces soak through the night. I then put all the lemons in a large stainless steel pot together with the water they were soaking in. I cooked the lemons at medium heat for a long time, about an hour and a half. It is vital to stir constantly, even at medium heat. A couple of times, the bottom bits of lemon began to burn.
I then strained the cooked lemons, producing a thick liquid. In the strainer, I took some of the lemon rinds and sliced them up into thin, edible strips. I put the cooked lemon liquid and the lemon rinds into a different pot and added three cups of sugar to the mixture.
I used a teaspoon of commercial pectin to help the mixture to gel. After cooking down the sugar mixture for about half an hour, the result was this luminous amber colored lemon marmalade.
The texture of the marmalade was nice. A gel like consistency with bits of rind floating in it. However, I am not completely satisfied with my first marmalade. Of all the experiments I have done, this one could do with significant improvement.
- The taste of the marmalade is a bit too bitter. I think this is because there was a little bit of burning in the first cooking stage.
- I don’t want to use commercial pectin in a citrus marmalade recipe. It gives the marmalade a chunky quality and chalky flavor. Lemons have a large amount of pectin in the seeds and in the pulp. In the next experiment, I will try to extract the pectin from the pits.
On the whole, I was glad to try my hand at making this marmalade. But there is a lot of room for improvement! On to more experiments!
