Taking advantage of citrus season is one of the best ways to beat the winter blues, and making marmalade is a fun weekend activity that is so rewarding, especially considering that it's minimal effort. Yes, there are a lot of steps, but there's nothing too complicated:

1. Boil the sliced citrus limes in a large pot of water, until they are very tender and soft, for over an hour.
2. Combine the softened sliced limes with sugar and lemon juice.
3. Boil the lime marmalade to 219–220 ºF (104–105 ºC). This is the ideal setting temperature for marmalade based on my tests.
4. Transfer the marmalade to clean jars to seal them using either the water bath method or by inverting the jars for 2 minutes.

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and the marmalade setting point before proceeding!

What you need to make this marmalade recipe

The best way to make lime marmalade is with the whole fruit because it's simple to do and doesn't require any added pectin. All you need are:

• whole limes, washed and scrubbed well
• water—tap water is fine: if you can drink it, then you can make marmalade with it
• sugar—granulated or special fine sugar works great here, and you don't need to invest in superfine sugar, which is more expensive. Superfine sugar will dissolve faster than regular granulated sugar, but the results will be the same!
• lemon juice—I prefer the taste of freshly squeezed lemon juice, as opposed to the bottled kind, and since the recipe already has a lot of acid present, you don't need to worry about the pH

Do not use jam sugar, also called gelling sugar, for this recipe. Jam sugar actually combines fine sugar with pectin and an acid (like citric acid) to promote gelling and set when making jams, marmalades, and sugar-based preserves. You do not need extra pectin for this and the other marmalade recipes on this site so please use regular granulated or fine sugar for this recipe!

Types of limes

For this recipe, we are using standard grocery store limes. The variety is Persian or Tahitian limes, at least in North America. They are seedless and not too small, which makes them very easy to handle. These limes are sour with bitter notes.

You could also try this recipe with key limes, also known as Mexican limes. Use the same weight of fruit as suggested in the ingredients for this recipe, so use 650 grams of key limes to make key lime marmalade. Note that key limes have seeds, so you will have to remove them as you slice the fruit. Since key limes are sweeter, you may reduce the sugar slightly. The minimum would be to use a 1:1 ratio of key limes to sugar by weight.

Special equipment

Surprisingly, you actually don't need anything special to make marmalade at home from scratch. You will need:

• a knife and cutting board to slice the fruit
• a big heavy-bottomed pot
• a wooden spoon or a heatproof silicone spatula
• canning jars and lids (always use new lids to ensure the rubber seal isn't damaged)
• a canning kit—you can read all about the components of a home canning kit but usually they come with a non-reactive funnel, a gauge for measuring the headspace between the surface of preserves and the lip of the jar, an air bubble remover, and a magnet for easily picking up the lids
• a digital thermometer, like a Thermapen or hands-free ChefAlarm, a fast-reading, accurate thermometers recommended for home cooks and bakers

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves
• Jam Bakes (available on Amazon), which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

The method

For most marmalade recipes on this site, we use the whole fruit method, where you immerse the whole fruit in a large volume of cold water, and bring it to a boil, cooking for 1–2 hours, until the fruit is very tender, and so soft that you could use your hands to tear the fruit apart easily. With this method, you slice the whole soft fruit, so the cut of the peel can be quite rustic and more coarse, less "refined" than you might want. I used this method to make classic orange marmalade, grapefruit marmalade, and even three-fruit marmalade.

If you want a finer-cut marmalade, start with sliced citrus fruit. With this method we are still using the whole fruit, meaning peel, pith, flesh, and all, but we are starting the process with sliced citrus instead of the whole fruit. This is the method we are using to make this lime marmalade.

The sliced citrus is brought to a boil in lots of water, and it's simmered for two hours, until very soft and tender.

Avoiding chewy peel

One of the big problems with making marmalade is that the peel can end up hard and chewy if you don't handle the fruit correctly. To avoid this, you have to boil the whole fruit (or sliced fruit in this case, or sliced peel) for over 1 hour, until the peel is extremely tender and so soft you can tear the fruit without using any force.

Whole citrus fruit should be so soft you can poke the handle of a wooden spoon or even your thumb through the fruit without any effort. One visual cue for knowing how long to boil sliced citrus is to observe the pith (the white part of the peel). The pith should no longer be opaque and completely translucent. You should see no patches of white from the pith. If any remain, the peel will be chewy.

If you find your water has evaporated before the sliced fruit has cooked long enough, add more water. This will give the citrus peel more time time to cook and then, all you have to do is boil it down again to evaporate off the excess water.

For this recipe, you do not need to remove the pith of the fruit from the peel, but you do need to take the time to properly soften the sliced fruit before adding sugar and proceeding with marmalade-making. If you don't do this step correctly, the peel will be tough and the marmalade will be inedible unless you strain out the toughened pieces of peel.

How to tell when the marmalade has boiled enough

Once you've added the sugar and the lemon juice, it's time to cook the marmalade. There are many ways to determine if you have hit the marmalade setting point:

• watch the temperature: use a digital thermometer to monitor the evolution of the temperature as you boil the mixture of citrus, sugar, and lemon juice. The setting point for marmalade is 104–105 ºC (220 ºF).
• watch the bubbles: early in the cooking process, the bubbles form and pop fast, whereas when you've hit the setting point, the bubbles are more stable, resembling blinking fish eyes
• watch the texture: marmalade boiled to the setting point is viscous and will drop in thick sheets off a spatula or wooden spoon, as opposed to a more fluid liquid texture at the beginning.
• use a frozen plate to do the plate test: freeze a few side plates or saucers in the freezer for an hour, then place a dollop of the cooked, hot marmalade on the plate, and put it back in the freezer for 1 minute. Retrieve the plate and nudge the dollop with your fingertip: does it wrinkle and seem "set"?

If you use a few of these tests and the marmalade passes inspection, you can transfer the mixture to jars to seal them. Remember for some of the more time-consuming tests, you should take the pot of marmalade off the heat or else you risk overcooking it! This is very important and if you overcook the marmalade, it will be dry and pasty, like a fruit candy or verging on a jelly or pâte de fruit, as opposed to spreadable marmalade.

Methods for sealing jars of homemade preserves

There are two major ways to seal jars of homemade preserves, and a third which is considered unsafe today (sealing with paraffin). The two best methods to seal jars are quite different, but the end result is the same: you are creating a vacuum in the jar to preserve the contents and prevent air and microbes from getting in.

For both methods, start by transferring the marmalade to warm, clean jars, then close them with lids until fingertight, then:

1. The quick and easy way: immediately invert the closed jars of hot marmalade, letting them sit upside down for 2 minutes. Flip the jars back upright, and let them stand for 24 hours undisturbed.
2. The long way: bring a large canning pot to a boil, then carefully drop the jars into the boiling water bath so that they are immersed. Bring back up to a rolling boil and boil jars for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the jars out of the bath and let stand for 24 hours undisturbed

With both methods, the jar lid will likely make a popping sound, a good indicator that the contents are sealed. If you don't follow either of these methods, you will have to store the jars of marmalade in the fridge.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Frequently asked questions

📖 Recipe

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Lime Marmalade

Learn how to make lime marmalade with this easy recipe, made from whole limes and without any added pectin.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Soak time 8 hours hours

Total Time 10 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5 jars of 250 mL

Calories 49kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mason jars
• Big pot
• Canning kit
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 650 grams limes this is roughly 8 limes
• 1.5 L water
• 1000 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL fresh lemon juice

Metric - US

Instructions

• To prepare the limes, slice off the ends to discard them, then quarter the fruit and thinly slice. Transfer the sliced fruit to a big pot and add the cold water. Put the lid on the pot and let the sliced fruit soak for about 12 hours (overnight).
• After soaking for 12 hours, uncover the pot and place it on the stove. Turn the burner on to high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Once at a boil, cover the pot (or partially cover) and reduce the heat to a slow simmer (medium–low or even low) and let the fruit slices simmer for 1.5 hours.
• Uncover the pot, and let the citrus continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. The water will slowly evaporate over this time and most importantly, the white pith of the lime peel will become completely translucent. The fruit slices will be very, very soft and tender. This Cuisinart pot from Amazon is a decent size for the job. The goal is to soften the pith (the white part of the peel) so that it is completely translucent. During this step, most of the water will evaporate and you will be left with about ½–⅓ the original volume. Do not try to speed up this step and do not boil the fruit too vigorously or else you risk the peel being chewy and hard!
• Once the fruit slices are very soft and the volume has reduced by almost two-thirds, turn off the heat and let the fruit sit for one hour before proceeding. This is to further ensure that all the fruit has softened sufficiently.
• Add the sugar and lemon juice to the pot with the softened citrus fruit. Bring the mixture back up to a boil over medium–high heat, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula (grab this spatula from Amazon), until you reach the marmalade setting point (104–105 ºC or 220 ºF)—use a fast-reading digital thermometer like this one from Thermoworks. You can also check the consistency by letting the marmalade drip off a spatula over the pot. It should fall in a thick sheet as opposed to a very fluid, loose droplets.
• When the marmalade reaches the set temperature, slide the pan off the heat, and let it cool for 2 minutes, then give it a good stir. This is to ensure that your canned marmalade will have an even dispersion of peel/fruit.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the jars.
• Divide the mixture between 5 or 6 sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these Ball jars on Amazon), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the last jar has a larger headspace, that will be your jar to enjoy right away, storing it in the fridge.
• Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next! Get it on Amazon.
• Flip the closed jars upside down and let them stand, inverted, for 2 minutes, before flipping back upright. You will hear a popping sound soon after you've flipped the jars, a good sign that the vacuum seal is created.
• Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.

Notes

This recipe makes 5 to 6 jars of 250 mL of lime marmalade. Make sure to prepare 6 jars to make sure you have enough ready when it's time.

To prepare jars for this recipe, start with washed jars. Set them on a sheet pan in an oven at 250 ºF, and leave them for at least 30 minutes before filling them.

Note that lime marmalade isn’t green, and more of a golden colour. If you want the marmalade to be green, you will likely have to add a drop of food colouring.

Nutrition

Calories: 49kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 4IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Lime marmalade appeared first on The Bake School.

Jam versus marmalade

Jam is made from a mixture of chopped fruit, sugar, and lemon juice. You can make jam with summer berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, etc.) or orchard and stone fruit (apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, etc.).

Marmalade is a preserve made from citrus fruit and sugar, usually regular granulated sugar. The most popular flavour is orange marmalade, made from oranges, sometimes even Seville oranges, prized for their high pectin and bitter flavour.

Originally marmalade was actually made from quince fruit, boiled to a thick paste. Today marmalade is made almost exclusively from citrus fruit (or sometimes ginger root).

Marmalade is known as a winter preserve because citrus fruit is usually in season in the winter, whereas jam is known as a spring, summer or fall preserve because most jam fruits grow between the spring and fall harvest seasons. There are exceptions to this, of course.

Ingredients

You only need three ingredients when you make marmalade:

• whole citrus fruit—any citrus fruit: oranges are most common, but you can also use grapefruit, lemons, and limes!
• lots of sugar—we use granulated or super fine sugar (also called special fine sugar); don't use jam sugar which contains pectin because your marmalade may end up too thick and the extra pectin is not necessary if you follow a good recipe!
• a little lemon juice to ensuire the pH is low enough for safe canning and also to brighten the flavour and add more depth with sweeter citrus fruit

The ratio of fruit to sugar

To make marmalade, the most common ratio of fruit to sugar is 1 part fruit to 1 part sugar, by weight. You may see a higher amount of sugar in marmalades containing more sour ingredients, like lemon or lime. This lime marmalade is a prime example of using more sugar than fruit.

For citrus that is on the sweeter side, you will likely use slightly less sugar, and for citrus that is more bitter or sour tasting, you may use a little more sugar.

You can't reduce the sugar in marmalade significantly because the set is dependent on the concentration of sugar. So if you reduce the sugar in a marmalade recipe, you will likely have to boil it longer to concentrate the mixture and achieve the right set.

I don't recommend reducing the sugar in marmalade recipes for another reason: marmalade is a balance of sour, sweet, and bitter flavours. You need the sugar to bring out the bitter and sour notes to create a bright, flavourful mixture.

At sea level, gelling takes place at 220 °F (104 °C–105 °C). So at higher altitudes, the setting point may be around 214 ºF or 101 ºC! Any higher, and your marmalade may be dry and pasty because the sugar is more concentrated. It will be darker in colour from caramelization or burning, and the peel may be tough and hard.

If you choose to follow the temperature of the marmalade as it boils, I highly recommend a digital fast-reading thermometer, like the Thermapen One or the ChefAlarm. These are reliable tools that are worth the investment and basically never fail.

Determining marmalade set

As your marmalade mixture is boiling on the stove, you will begin to wonder just how long it has to boil to achieve the perfect set. There are a few ways to determine at this point if it will set or not:

• observe the bubbles forming on the surface of the marmalade: marmalade that is close to or at the setting point will have stable bubbles that will form and pop after a short delay, while marmalade that has not boiled enough will have volatile bubbles that form and collapse very quickly.
• use a plate test (also called a wrinkle plate test or frozen plate test): dollop a small amount of marmalade on a frozen saucer or plate, then place the plate back in the freezer for about 1 minute. Nudge the dollop with your finger: if it wrinkles when you nudge it, the marmalade will set. If it still seems very fluid and lacking in body, you need to boil it more.
• check the temperature: use a thermometer to gauge how close you are to the setting point. The setting point is about 104 °C (219–220 °F). Use a Thermapen or a ChefAlarm (hands-free) digital thermometer to make sure you can catch the marmalade before you overcook it! Read more about the marmalade setting point if you are unsure.

Sealing jars

There are two ways to seal the jars that I recommend:

1. boiling closed jars to seal them (recommended but takes longer)
2. inverting jars to seal them (the "quick and dirty" method that may yield mixed results but works most of the time)

Boiling jars to seal them

The boiling water method to seal jars takes more time, but it works well and it is the top safest method for sealing jars of high-acid preserves. To do this, you will need a home canning kit or a large pot that is taller than your jars. Remember the jars must be fully submerged in the boiling water bath for this method to work.

• Divide the mixture between sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these jars), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the last jar filled has a larger headspace, you cannot safely can it and you should store it in the fridge.
• Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger-tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next!
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware rimmed sheet pans are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the processed jars.
• To seal the jars, place them in a large pot, fitted with a rack or towel at the bottom to prevent them from rattling and cracking. Fill the pot with hot water so that the jars are completely immersed.
• Bring the pot of water to a boil with the lid on and once the boiling point has been reached, boil the jars for 5 minutes.
• Take the pan off the heat, and let the jars stand in the pan for another 5 minutes. Finally, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and place them on the towel-lined baking sheet. You will hear a popping sound soon after, a good sign that the vacuum seal is proper. Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.

After 24 hours, the middle of the lid should show a slight indent, meaning the jars are sealed. You may hear a pop sound during this time when the lid seals shut, but not necessarily!

Inverting jars to seal them

After filling and closing the jars of hot marmalade, immediately invert the closed jars, letting them sit upside down for 2 minutes. Flip the jars back upright, and let them stand for 24 hours undisturbed.

After 24 hours, the middle of the lid should show a slight indent, meaning the jars are sealed. You may hear a pop sound during this time when the lid seals shut.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Frequently asked questions

How much water do you add to fruit for marmalade?

If you choose to use the whole fruit method, where whole citrus fruit are boiled for almost two hours until very soft, there's no specific water amount to use: you use as much water as you need to keep the citrus immersed and simmering. You will dump off that water and when it comes time to make marmalade with the boiled fruit, you won't add any water and only add the juices from the fruit.
For the sliced fruit method where sliced citrus fruit are boiled for one to two hours to soften, generally for around 600 grams of citrus, use 6 cups (1.5 L) and for 800 grams of citrus, use 8 cups (2 L) of water. The more citrus fruit you have, the more water you will need. Just remember that once the citrus peel is sufficiently soft, you will likely be left with ⅓–½ of the volume of water.

How long to boil the marmalade before it sets?

It's not useful to give a timeframe for how long to boil marmalade, especially as the setting on your stove will have a huge impact on the time it takes. You have to boil it long enough so that it reaches the setting point. It's better to monitor progress using visual cues (watch the bubbles!), the frozen plate test, and the temperature. Remember the setting point is 220 ºF at sea level. It takes as long as it takes to get there!

Do you need pectin?

Pectin is responsible for trapping water, along with sugar, to ensure that your marmalade sets nicely. Without it, marmalade would be more fluid. You don't need to add pectin when you make marmalade because the peel of the citrus fruit have sufficient pectin.

Why do we add lemon juice?

Adding lemon juice not only balances the flavour. It also ensures the pH is low enough for pectin to do its job. At lower pH, the pectin can assemble into a network that traps water, thereby thickening.

How do you thicken marmalade without pectin?

Citrus are very high in pectin, which is mostly located in the peel of the fruit. You do not need to add commercial pectin to thicken it. You do need to add quite a bit of sugar, and the amount of sugar will impact the time it takes to thicken the marmalade and achieve the perfect set.

How do you know when the marmalade is ready?

It's better to use a few methods to monitor progress and to determine when marmalade has boiled sufficiently: use visual cues (watch the bubbles, which will be stable and appear on the surface like blinking eyes!), as well as the frozen plate test, and the temperature. Remember the setting point is 220 ºF at sea level. It takes as long as it takes to get there!

Why is my marmalade not setting?

If you feel like you've been boiling your marmalade and it's still too thin, pause and take a step back. Take the pot off the heat and go over what you've done: have you added the correct ratio of fruit to sugar? Is the mixture acidic enough? Are you sure your thermometer is installed and working properly? Does the mixture appear like a thick syrup that has some body to it? You don't want to boil the mixture until it's so thick and caramelized that you can't spread it.

Why is marmalade lumpy?

If you don't stir your marmalade enough while it's boiling, the pectin may not disperse evenly. Citrus is very high in pectin and when you extract that pectin out of the peel and into the pot of marmalade, you have to stir well and continue to disperse it throughout the mixture. Otherwise, you may end up with clumps or lumps of pectin, which will appear as clear, gelled lumps separated by syrupy fluid.

Why is the peel chewy or hard in marmalade?

If you don't boil the citrus peel in plain water to soften it, the peel will be chewy and hard when you make marmalade with it. You must boil the citrus fruit (especially the peel) for over an hour to ensure that it is very tender. Otherwise, when you add the sugar and cook it, the peel will harden and, worst case scenario, become inedible. Once this happens, you cannot fix it. You will have to warm the marmalade to pass it through a strainer and remove the peel.

Why is marmalade thick and pasty?

After sitting for 24 hours, when you open up your first jar of marmalade, if it's too thick and dry, like a fruit paste, it means you overcooked the marmalade. Marmalade is a spread that is thick, but soft and fluid.

Why is my yield lower than the recipe?

If you made fewer jars of marmalade than the recipe said, it means you may have overcooked it, or you cooked it longer than the recipe writer, evaporating more water than the author. Some jam makers like a more loose set, while others like a thicker set.

Why is my yield higher than the recipe?

If you end up with more jars of marmalade than you anticipated, it may mean that you under-boiled the marmalade and your set may be looser or more watery. Some jam-makers prefer a looser set, but too loose can mean you have too much water and a lower concentration of sugar, which may make the product less stable.

The post How to make marmalade appeared first on The Bake School.

I cannot stand recipes that suggest that I cook my jam to the "desired consistency" or until it "passes the wrinkle plate test". Say what? How do you know when marmalade is cooked enough?

Let's be honest. If you are not a jam and marmalade expert and if you don't make preserves very often, you will probably lack the experience to see the visual cues of the perfect set. I know that I can't always tell!

I hate guessing games and, as you know, I love to measure everything. And that is how the marmalade temperature experiment was born.

Once you understand the jam setting point applies to marmalade too, your jam-making will get a lot easier!

How do you know when marmalade is set?

You have three basic options for determining if your marmalade has cooked enough and will set properly after cooling:

1. the bubbles: when the marmalade first comes to a boil, the bubbles are quite volatile, they form and pop almost instantaneously, whereas when the marmalade has thickened enough, the bubbles will be more stable and resemble blinking fish eyes. The visual cues are hard to see for beginners so if you are learning to make marmalade and jams, I recommend you observe the changes in the bubbles as you go, but you should rely on other methods to decide when your marmalade has reached the setting point.
2. the wrinkle plate test: freeze a few small saucer plates in your freezer overnight. When you think your marmalade is cooked enough, retrieve a saucer from the freezer and place a dollop of hot marmalade on the plate. Put it back in the freezer for 1 minute, then take it out and push the dollop with your finger: if the dollop wrinkles nicely, your marmalade is probably done, if it's still too fluid to wrinkle, keep cooking.
3. the temperature: measure the temperature with a candy thermometer. You want to cook marmalade to somewhere in the range of 217ºF to 221ºF, depending on how fluid or thick you want it. Don't overcook your marmalade because the peel will become chewy and the sugar will caramelize, so be careful how high you push the temperature before you stop cooking.

There’s one caveat when it comes to using temperature: you need to pay attention to altitude! If you are making marmalade above sea level (like in the Rockies), the boiling point of water will be lower, which means the setting temperature will be lower too! The setting point of 220 °F is for marmalade-making at sea level.

How long does marmalade take to set?

In general, once you achieve the right consistency according to your tests and then you have canned your marmalade in jars using a water bath method, you must set the sealed jars aside to cool and it will take 24 to 48 hours for the marmalade to thicken and achieve the final set.

Experiment to compare cooking temperature to marmalade set

I cooked up a batch of three fruit marmalade, using the whole fruit method (no pectin). I measured the temperature as the marmalade bubbled away with an instant read thermometer, the Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

I took samples every degree, starting at 217°F and all the way up to 222°F. I chose this range because most of the recipes I perused recommended cooking to somewhere in that range.

As the marmalade boiled and I sampled away, I honestly thought my experiment was a flop. I could not have been more mistaken. Behold, the results!

What is the setting temperature for marmalade (also known as marmalade setting point)?

It turns out there is a significant difference between marmalade cooked to 217°F and marmalade cooked to 220°F. Generally, the setting point of marmalade is 222ºF (which comes out to about 105ºC). Cooked to 220ºF, marmalade will be very thick and will set properly once cooled. But some people don't like to cook marmalade that much and prefer a looser set, others prefer to go a little higher, up to 222ºF. That's entirely up to you.

Here's the impact of cooking temperature on marmalade set:

• marmalade cooked to the lower end of the range (217–218°F or 103ºC) has a bright citrus flavour like fresh citrus fruit, but it is more on the watery side of set. The peel is very tender. Marmalade cooked to this temperature dribbles off your toast and leaves a trail in your kitchen or on your keyboard, if you are like me, doing chores while eating marmalade on toast in the morning, without a plate to catch the drips. Delicious, but drippy.
• marmalade cooked to the middle of the range (219°F or 104ºC) is not as drippy, but not overly set. The flavour is still bright and the peel is tender, but the preserve is just a touch thicker.
• marmalade cooked to the upper end of the range (220–221°F or 105ºC) is set just right for me: 220°F is considered the setting point of jam, also known as the gelling point, and this is where things get really interesting. The marmalade is much thicker, but with a touch of dribble to it, the peel is firmer, and the flavour is completely different. The citrus flavour is still there, but it's not as bright. The caramel undertone is coming through and there's a bit of a bitter orange flavour that lingers.
• marmalade cooked to the setting point, 222°F (105.5ºC), is chewy and very thick: this is the upper limit, in my opinion, as beyond this point, the peel gets really, really chewy. At 222°F, the peel is a "nice" chewy. Past 222°F (106ºC), the peel is bordering on tough, and not so pleasant.

Do you need to add pectin when making marmalade?

Seville oranges have the most pectin, so a batch of Seville orange marmalade definitely does not require the addition of pectin. But that being said, citrus fruit vary as does their pectin content. As we can see above with my temperature experiment, the marmalade set has a lot to do with the concentration of sugar and the removal of water, and not as much to do with the pectin content.

If we compare a dollop of pectin-set orange marmalade from the store to homemade marmalade with no extra pectin added, you will notice the pectin-set marmalade is more jellied, seemingly dryer. The store-bought marmalade with pectin definitely doesn't have my favourite texture. It smears funnily on toast, and I found the jiggle of the pectin-set marmalade unpleasant, and a little odd.

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves (available on Amazon in English), and it's also in her book Les Conserves Selon Camilla (available on Amazon in French)
• Jam Bakes (available on Amazon), which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

Achieving the perfect texture and set: troubleshooting marmalade

Is your homemade marmalade not setting or is the marmalade too runny?

After your batch of marmalade is canned and left for 2 days to cool and achieve its final set, if you open your first jar and find that the marmalade is runny, it means that you didn't cook the marmalade for long enough or to a high enough temperature. Your batch of marmalade contains too much water still.

How can I fix runny marmalade?

You have two choices to fix runny marmalade if it's not setting properly:

• Live with the runny marmalade and enjoy it despite its flaws: Spread it liberally on toast or better yet, spoon it on vanilla ice cream. Serve it with cake as a sauce.
• Reboil it: open up all the jars of marmalade, combine them in a pot on the stove, and cook it again up to 220ºF. You will have to go through the process of sterilizing the jars again and canning the marmalade in the sterilized jars in a water bath.

Is your homemade marmalade too thick and chewy? It's overcooked!

As I mentioned, you can save and fix a marmalade that doesn't set properly because it's undercooked by reheating the preserve, bringing it back up to a boil and cooking to 220ºF–222ºF before transferring to sterilized jars and sealing. On the other hand, if you've overcooked a batch of marmalade, there's not much you can do.

Overcooked marmalade has a few characteristics: chewy, tough citrus peel, possibly rubbery and a thick texture verging on dry. I have been guilty of overcooking marmalade when I was trying to determine the set with a plate test: I left the pot of marmalade on the stove, which continued to boil while I was fiddling with the plate test. In those few minutes, the temperature of the marmalade continued to rise, and I ended up with a rubbery marmalade.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to salvage a batch of overcooked marmalade. Of course, you can still eat overcooked marmalade and learn from this mistake. Remember to pull the pan off the heat while you determine if you've achieved the proper set and use an instant-read probe thermometer (like this probe thermometer with a longer cable: the ChefAlarm) to make sure you are able to measure changes in temperature as they happen with little delay!

Is your marmalade gritty with sugar crystals? Find out why!

Undissolved sugar can cause crystallization

When making marmalade, each step serves a purpose and though it might seem tedious, it's important to follow the steps carefully. For example, when you mix the chopped fruit with the sugar, it's very important to stir the mixture on a lower heat setting in order to properly dissolve all the sugar.

The goal is to completely dissolve and melt the sugar. If you don't take time to properly dissolve the sugar at the very beginning of jam-making in general, you risk ending up with gritty crystallized marmalade because sugar wants to crystallize and just a tiny amount of undissolved sugar at this stage can ruin an entire batch of marmalade.

If you didn't properly dissolve the sugar, it's likely that you will notice sugar crystallizing in all the sealed jars of the entire batch of marmalade, before they've been opened. When you open a new jar, you can transfer the contents to a saucepan and heat it on low to warm the marmalade and melt the sugar crystals. Then transfer it back to the jar and store in the fridge.

Some people also suggest briefly microwaving the open jar of marmalade to warm and melt the crystallized sugar.

Improperly stored jars can cause crystallization

It's important to properly close open jars of marmalade to avoid evaporation. If you don't close a jar of marmalade (or jam) properly, the surface may evaporate causing crystallization of the sugar. This isn't surprising given how much sugar you use to make preserves. This concentrated sugary spread is likely to crystallize over time, especially if it dries out.

Conclusion

It's honestly a matter of personal preference, but now I hope that you can better understand your options and pick your favourite marmalade set. I don't think there's a right or a wrong. Well... there's definitely no wrong when it comes to marmalade. I love them all. My favourite was definitely above 219°F. Probably 220–221°F. I love the flavour of the marmalade in this range, and I am happy that it will stay put on my toast. Then again, I cooked a batch of marmalade to 222°F and I love how it's a little darker, with a deeper flavour. In a perfect world, I would have a jar from each temperature on hand, at all times, to suit my mood.

Which marmalade do you think you would prefer?

Further reading

• If you want to make marmalade, start with this homemade three fruit marmalade recipe
• This method was also used to make grapefruit marmalade and orange marmalade
• If you prefer finer cut marmalade, try this lime marmalade
• Make marmalade pudding cakes with your homemade marmalade!
• Serve homemade marmalade with homemade croissants (if you have the time)

Please note this post contains affiliate links to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy a product I recommend, I will get a small commission, and the price you have to pay will not change in any way.

The post Never make runny marmalade again: the marmalade setting point appeared first on The Bake School.

If you are a fan of pink grapefruit (or even the Ruby Red variety), this grapefruit marmalade is for you! This marmalade uses the whole fruit and you don't need any pectin if you boil the marmalade until the marmalade setting point.

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and tools for canning before proceeding!

Ingredients to make grapefruit marmalade

You don't need to use pectin when you make a batch of marmalade. The three ingredients for this recipe are really simple:

• whole citrus fruit, washed well to remove any waxes that may be present on the surface of the fruit
  • white grapefruit is the least sweet and the bitter grapefruit flavour of the peel will dominate in marmalade
  • ruby red grapefruit is the most sweet
  • pink grapefruit offer a good balance of bitter and sweet, but not too sweet
• granulated sugar, which is essential to balancing out the bitterness of the citrus peel and also to ensure your marmalade will set
• lemon juice to control pH, which ensures pectin activation to gel the marmalade properly but also to ensure the sugar doesn't crystallize

If you have the right ratio of fruit to sugar, you're on your way to perfect marmalade. For the recipes on this website, we use a ratio that is close to 1:1 by weight of fruit to sugar.

If you have a little more fruit, that's okay. But try to measure out your ingredients so that they are close to this ratio to ensure that your marmalade will set properly.

Making marmalade from whole citrus fruit

Using whole fruit for grapefruit marmalade means you are using every part of the fruit. While other methods will have you separate the outer peel from the flesh of the fruit, the whole-fruit method is also a lot easier to do:

1. Boil the whole citrus fruit for 2 hours or until very soft.
2. Drain and let cool.
3. Cut each grapefruit into two, then split each half into quarters or smaller sections.
4. Separate the flesh of the fruit from the soft peel with your knife (it should separate quite easily), removing seeds as you go.
5. Chop the flesh fairly finely. Try to remove some of the membranes that separate the segments of the fruit if they seem tough.
6. Slice the peel into strips.
7. Place the sliced fruit (flesh and peel) back into a big clean pot and mix with sugar and lemon juice.
8. Boil until you reach the marmalade setting point, which for this recipe is around 104–105 ºC (220 ºF).
9. Take the pot of marmalade and let it sit for 2 minutes before giving it a good stir.
10. Transfer to clean jars and then seal them using a water bath canning kit.

If you prefer a finer-cut marmalade, try this lime marmalade recipe, where the limes are sliced before boiling in water, yielding finer slivers of rind, instead of boiling the whole fruit, then slicing, yielding a more rustic marmalade.

Special equipment for making marmalade at home

I highly recommend investing in a canning kit made up of the smaller tools you will need in order to properly seal your jars, including a magnet to transfer the clean lids to the jars to avoid contamination, as well as a headspace measuring tool to make it easier to verify that you are filling the jars correctly, and a non-reactive funnel that will help you fill the jars without spilling and without dirtying the edges (which would ruin the seal!).

The kit should also come with jar lifters which are so helpful when moving the jars in and out of the water bath! You will also need a big pot preferably with a rack, like this one on Amazon, in order to boil the jars of marmalade for 10 minutes.

In order to achieve the perfect texture, it's very important to boil marmalade just enough so that it is thick, but not so much that the peel becomes chewy. A thermometer like a fast-reading Thermapen helps judge how far along you are in the cooking process and works perfectly with this recipe and method. The Thermapen is what I use. For a hands-free setup, a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

This recipe works with most citrus fruit, and you can see I've used it to make three fruit marmalade and orange marmalade.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves
• Jam Bakes, which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

What to serve it with

Grapefruit marmalade is bittersweet so it's important to serve it with enriched breads, like this easy brioche or even homemade croissants.

For this method, you do not need to boil the seeds in the pot with the marmalade. This marmalade recipe will set properly if you follow the proportions as written and boil the marmalade to the right temperature.

📖 Recipe

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Grapefruit Marmalade

This gorgeous homemade grapefruit marmalade recipe is made with pink grapefruit, using the whole fruit method so nothing is wasted! This recipe works with oranges and lemons too.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 90 tablespoons

Calories 46kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mason jars
• Big pot
• Canning kit
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 950 grams grapefruit this is roughly 4 grapefruit
• 950 grams granulated sugar
• 100 mL fresh lemon juice
• 5 mL vanilla bean paste optional

Metric - US

Instructions

• Bring a large, covered pot of water to boil with the whole citrus fruit. This Cuisinart pot from Amazon is a decent size for the job. Boil the fruit until they are very tender and soft. Grapefruit take about 2.5 hours. Drain the fruit and let them cool slightly before proceeding. Discard all the water.
• Place a cutting board inside a rimmed baking sheet (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This is to catch all the citrus juices! Slice each fruit in half to expose the seeds. Remove the seeds if there are any, then quarter each half. Seperate the flesh from the peel so that you can slice the peel thinly and chop the flesh, removing any membranes if they are tough. Transfer the sliced peel, flesh, and juices into a large pot (like this Cuisinart pot from Amazon).
• To the large pot of chopped fruit, add the sugar and the lemon juice. Clip on your thermometer (like this fast-reading digital thermometer from Thermoworks). Bring the mixture to a boil on medium–high, stirring with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula (grab this spatula from Amazon). When the mixture is boiling, this is when you want to start monitoring the temperature. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it reaches 220°F (104–105 ºC). When the marmalade reaches this temperature, slide the pan off the heat, and let it cool for 2 minutes, then add the vanilla bean paste and give the marmalade a good stir. This is to ensure that your canned marmalade will have an even dispersion of peel/fruit and vanilla bean seeds.
• Divide the mixture between 5 or 6 sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these Ball jars on Amazon), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the 6th jar has a larger headspace, you are just going to have to eat it. Just kidding. Well, except that you can’t seal it to store at room temperature, so that will be your jar to enjoy right away, storing it in the fridge. Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next! Get it on Amazon.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the processed jars.
• To seal the jars, place them in a large pot, with a towel at the bottom to prevent them from rattling and cracking. Fill the pot with hot water so that the jars are completely immersed. Bring the pot of water to a boil with the lid on and once the boiling point has been reached, boil the jars for 5 minutes.
• Take the pan off the heat, and let the jars stand in the pan for another 5 minutes. Finally, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and place them on the towel-lined baking sheet. You will hear a popping sound soon after, a good sign that the vacuum seal is proper. Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.
• Carefully remove the jars from the water bath and place them on the towel-lined baking sheet. You will hear a popping sound soon after, a good sign that the vacuum seal is proper. Let the jars cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours before putting them away.

Notes

This recipe makes roughly 5.5 jars of grapefruit marmalade, so make sure you prepare 6 jars and lids.

Nutrition

Calories: 46kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.003g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.004g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.002g | Sodium: 0.1mg | Potassium: 16mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 121IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.01mg

Frequently asked questions

The post Grapefruit marmalade appeared first on The Bake School.

Marmalade is a bittersweet preserve made from citrus fruit, usually oranges, though lemon, limes, grapefruit, and other citrus can also be added to marmalade.

Homemade marmalade tastes so much better than most grocery store marmalades, which tend to lack scent and flavour, tasting mostly like sugar. It’s a real treat served with homemade brioche and croissants. Need I say more?

Making marmalade is simpler than you think. Most people worry about the set of marmalade. How do you avoid making marmalade that is too runny or overcooked?

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and the marmalade setting point before proceeding!

I like to check the temperature as the marmalade boils with an instant-read thermometer. I use a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

This marmalade recipe is adapted from Camilla's book Preservation Society Home Preserves. Camilla is the mastermind behind the Preservation Society in Montreal and I am unabashedly addicted to her preserves.

What you need to make marmalade

Marmalade recipes are made from a simple list of ingredients:

1. citrus fruit
2. sugar

Best citrus for marmalade

During the winter season, Seville oranges are prized for their bitter, astringent, sharp orange flavour and high pectin content, which is great for homemade marmalade, but not so great for eating.

But the Seville orange season is quite short, and for the rest of the year, you can make marmalade from any of the common citrus fruits: orange, lime, lemon, and grapefruit. When making marmalades, it's really important to scrub your citrus fruit and wash them really well to remove any dirt or pesticides that may be on the skin.

Type of sugar

Any white sugar will work whether granulated sugar, superfine white sugar, or fine natural cane sugar (like this one on Amazon). Fine sugar will dissolve quickly and more readily than a more coarse sugar. You wouldn't want to use coarse turbinado sugar in marmalade because you risk ending up with a marmalade with granular sugar crystals that didn't dissolve properly. I use granulated or fine sugar. That's caster sugar for the Brits among us.

You could also use a combination of white sugar and brown sugar to make marmalade, but remember that brown sugar contains molasses and so the flavour will be noticeably different than marmalade made with white sugar. Make sure the total weight of sugar in the recipe doesn't change.

Do not use jam sugar or gelling sugar in this recipe, which contains pectin and citric acid. You don't need the extra pectin to make this recipe, and it will likely throw off the texture.

If you are following a recipe that says to use 950 grams of white sugar, make sure that you use that amount. On that note, do not try to make a lower-sugar marmalade unless you are following a low-sugar marmalade recipe. Cutting back on the quantity of sugar will have a huge impact on the set of your homemade preserves and can also affect the shelf life. Don't reduce the sugar in a preserve recipe unless you know what you are doing.

Whatever type of sugar you are using, make sure that all the sugar is properly dissolved into your marmalade mixture before you bring it up to a boil to thicken it to the desired consistency.

Artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes

I do not recommend using any kind of artificial sweetener nor most sugar substitutes to make marmalade (whether stevia, sucralose, or others) because the flavour won't be the same, nor will the stability of the marmalade. Stick with real sugar. You can add honey or maple syrup to your marmalade recipe, but like with brown sugar, I would use it combined with white sugar.

The whole fruit marmalade method

This easy marmalade recipe uses the whole fruit method for marmalades, so the flavour is bittersweet. The steps to making marmalade from whole citrus fruit can be summarized as follows:

1. Boil the whole citrus fruit: With the whole fruit method, the first step takes the longest, but is thankfully super easy: you just boil the citrus fruits in lots of water until they are very soft and tender. In my experience, navel oranges take the longest to cook through (about 2 hours), while lemons take just one hour. Grapefruits are done somewhere in between. I guess it has to do with the thickness of the pith. You MUST boil the fruit long enough and make sure it is quite soft at this step. If you skimp here and don't boil the whole fruit long enough, you will probably end up with a batch of marmalade with a tough chewy peel that is hard to bite through. Take your time to do this step properly to ensure soft peel in your next batch of marmalade. Boiling the fruit, specifically the peel, is also important to ensure that the peel is evenly dispersed through the jars of marmalade and to avoid having all the peel float to the top of the jars.
2. Chop the soft-boiled citrus fruit: This step is the worst part for me, by far. You have to slice all that fruit. I truly hate slicing things, but here we are. You need to slice the boiled citrus fruit to make marmalade. You have to chop up all the boiled citrus fruit and make sure to remove all the seeds, which are discarded.
3. Cook sliced citrus with lots of sugar to make marmalade: this is the fun part and not too difficult. Combine the sugar and all the sliced citrus fruit and juices and cook in a big pot on the stove. It's going to boil and bubble for a long time until the mixture reaches the right consistency (set point). You can tell the marmalade set point with a thermometer or using the plate test.
4. Seal the jars: Transfer the marmalade to jars and process to seal the jars in a boiling water bath.
5. Let the jars rest: After water bath processing, the jars of marmalade must sit undisturbed at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours (1 to 2 days) in order to completely cool and reach the correct consistency. Just let them be.

Special tools for making and canning preserves

You absolutely don't need any special equipment to make marmalade, but I highly recommend purchasing a canning kit, which contains everything you need to process and seal your jars of homemade preserves (namely a big pot for processing jars, a rack that fits in the pot, a non-reactive funnel, a magnetic lid lifter, a tool for measuring headspace and removing air bubbles, and jar lifter tongs).

I have the Bernardin canning kit and it's really made jam-making and preserve-making much easier. Plus it's readily available in Canada. It's important to use heat-resistant and non-reactive tools given the sugar content, high temperature, and acidity level of marmalade. Besides the canning kit, you will also need:

• sterilized Mason jars with lids that have rubber seals. I like 250 mL (8 ounce) jars: make sure that the seal is new and in perfect condition or your jars may not close properly). It's always good to have extra lids in case any are damaged (get them on Amazon)
• a big heavy-bottomed pot (like this Cuisinart pot) that you will use to boil the whole fruit and to cook the marmalade in
• a wooden spoon or a heat-resistant spatula
• a digital thermometer (like the handheld Thermapen or the ChefAlarm probe thermometer) to measure temperature unless you have a lot of experience determining marmalade set visually or with the plate test
• a non-reactive ladle (Amazon)

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Making other types of marmalade

The steps are quite easy, but I understand that there are quite a few of them. Just remember that unappetizing jar of odourless grocery store brand marmalade. That should be motivation enough to make marmalade at home! And feel free to adapt this recipe and make different marmalade fruit combinations. Here are some marmalade recipe ideas to try:

• for grapefruit marmalade, use 800–900 grams of grapefruit + 950 grams of sugar + 100 mL lemon juice (use pink grapefruits to make this pink grapefruit marmalade)
• for lime marmalade, use 650–700 grams of limes + 1000 grams (1 kg) of sugar + 60 mL lemon juice (or make this fine-cut lime marmalade using a slightly different method)
• for blood orange marmalade, use 800–900 grams of blood oranges + 950 grams of sugar + 100 mL of lemon juice
• for orange grapefruit marmalade, use 800–900 grams of a mixture of orange and grapefruit + 950 grams of sugar + 100 mL of lemon juice
• for Seville orange marmalade, use 800–900 grams of Seville oranges + 950 grams of sugar + 100 mL lemon juice (or use navel oranges to make orange marmalade)
• for lemon-lime marmalade, use 800–900 grams of a mixture of lemons and limes + 950 grams of sugar + 100 mL lemon juice

I think you get the point: start with a solid recipe and make your modifications respecting the amount of citrus fruit and sugar in the recipe. The ratio of sugar to fruit is key so do not deviate too much. As you can see, the ratio of sugar to fruit is very close to 1:1 by weight. If you stick to the quantities as written, your homemade marmalade should taste great and set properly without any issues.

My marmalade didn't set! Now what?

Assuming you followed the quantities in the three-fruit marmalade recipe below, I am guessing you didn't cook the marmalade to the right temperature.

Cooking to just above 220°F–222ºF but not much higher than that is key: if you cook to too high a temperature, you will end up with a very thick, slightly more caramelized preserve, and the peel may become overly chewy if you aren't careful. But if you don't cook to a high enough temperature, you risk ending up with a very runny, watery marmalade, which isn't ideal either.

If you find that, when the marmalade has cooled, it's too runny, you can dump it all back into a big pot and reheat to bring it up to 220–222ºF. Then you will have to transfer to sterilized jars again and reseal, of course. On the other hand, overcooked marmalade cannot be salvage. Overcooked marmalade can still be eaten, but the texture is dry and rubbery.

Yes, you can make three-fruit marmalade from oranges, lemons, and grapefruit with this recipe, using the right equipment and following these instructions!

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves
• Jam Bakes, which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

📖 Recipe

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Three fruit marmalade

This gorgeous homemade 3 fruit marmalade recipe is made with oranges, lemons, and grapefruit, using the whole fruit method so nothing is wasted!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5 250 mL jars

Calories 61kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mason jars
• Big pot
• Canning kit
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 885 grams citrus fruit I used 1 lemon, 1 grapefruit, and 2 oranges
• 950 grams granulated sugar
• 100 mL fresh lemon juice

Metric - US

Instructions

• Bring a large, covered pot of water to boil with the whole citrus fruit. This Cuisinart pot from Amazon is a decent size for the job. Boil the fruit until they are very tender and soft. The lemon will take about an hour, while the oranges take the full 2 hours. The grapefruit take about an hour and a half. Drain the fruit and let them cool slightly before proceeding. Discard all the water.
• Place a cutting board inside a rimmed baking sheet (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This is to catch all the citrus juices! Slice each fruit in half to expose the seeds. Remove the seeds, then quarter each half. Remove the flesh and chop it up. Slice the peel finely (if you have the patience). Transfer the sliced peel, chopped fruit flesh and juices into a large pot (like this Cuisinart pot from Amazon).
• To the large pot of chopped fruit, add the sugar and the lemon juice. Clip on your thermometer (like this fast-reading digital thermometer from Thermoworks). Bring the mixture to a boil on medium–high, stirring with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula (grab this spatula from Amazon). When the mixture is boiling, this is when you want to start monitoring the temperature. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it reaches 220°F. When the marmalade reaches this temperature, slide the pan off the heat, and let it cool for 2 minutes, then give it a good stir. This is to ensure that your canned marmalade will have an even dispersion of peel/fruit.
• Divide the mixture between 5 sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these Ball jars on Amazon), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the 5th jar has a larger headspace, you are just going to have to eat it. Just kidding. Well, except that you can’t can it, so that will be your jar to enjoy right away, storing it in the fridge. Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next! Get it on Amazon
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the processed jars. To seal the jars, place them in a large pot, with a towel at the bottom to prevent them from rattling and cracking. Fill the pot with hot water so that the jars are completely immersed. Bring the pot of water to a boil with the lid on and once the boiling point has been reached, boil the jars for 5 minutes. Then take the pan off the heat, and let the jars stand in the pan for another 5 minutes. Finally, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and place them on the towel-lined baking sheet. You will hear a popping sound soon after, a good sign that the vacuum seal is proper. Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.

Nutrition

Calories: 61kcal

The post Three fruit marmalade appeared first on The Bake School.

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and the marmalade setting point before proceeding!

The easiest way to make it at home

I like to use whole fruit to make marmalade, which makes it so easy and pretty foolproof, dare I say! There are a few basic steps to making orange marmalade using the whole fruit method:

• The citrus fruit are boiled in a large pot of water, whole, until they are very tender and soft.
• The soft-boiled fruit are then sliced thinly, and combined with sugar and lemon juice. The pits are discarded.
• The orange marmalade is boiled to 219–220 ºF (104–105 ºC). This is the ideal setting temperature for marmalade based on my tests.
• The marmalade is transferred to jars to seal them using the water bath method.

Types of oranges

You can make marmalade from any citrus fruit, really. For orange marmalade, Seville oranges are especially popular because of their bitter notes that are a good balance for all the sugar.

Truly though, if you are following a recipe like this one that uses whole fruit, you can use most oranges. I made this batch with simple navel oranges from the grocery store. You can also try to use smaller fruits, like clementines for a different flavour.

Other ingredients

Marmalade is really easy to make and actually, you don't need any special ingredients. For this recipe, all you need are oranges, sugar, and a little lemon juice.

The sugar I use is "special fine," which is very similar to granulated sugar. Some may favour superfine sugar or fruit sugar. Both of these sugars have smaller crystals and are faster to dissolve, reducing the likelihood of it crystallizing down the road.

Honestly, marmalade takes a long time to boil, and given the acidity of the mixture, it's unlikely that sugar crystallization would be an issue. Just make sure that your sugar is properly dissolved before you boil the mixture to set it. Start it on low and let the mixture slowly heat up to properly dissolve the sugar before cranking it up to boil it.

Don't use jam sugar in this recipe. It contains pectin and citric acid, both of which are unnecessary here.

This recipe and most marmalade recipes do not require that you add extra pectin. Citrus fruits have a lot of pectin in them, and much of it is located in the skin, contrary to popular belief. You don't need to boil the marmalade with the seeds and as you can see, with this method, the marmalade sets beautifully!

Achieving the perfect set

You have three basic options for determining if your marmalade has cooked enough and will set properly after cooling:

1. the bubbles: when the marmalade first comes to a boil, the bubbles are quite volatile, they form and pop almost instantaneously, whereas when the marmalade has thickened enough, the bubbles will be more stable and resemble blinking fish eyes. These visual cues are hard to see for beginners, so if you are new to making preserves, this might not be the best technique for you.
2. the wrinkle plate test: freeze a few small saucer plates in your freezer overnight. When you think your marmalade is cooked enough, retrieve a saucer from the freezer and place a dollop of hot marmalade on the plate. Put it back in the freezer for 1 minute, then take it out and push the dollop with your finger: if the dollop wrinkles nicely, your marmalade is probably done, if it's still too fluid to wrinkle, keep cooking.
3. the temperature: measure the temperature with a candy thermometer. You want to cook marmalade to somewhere around 104 ºC (219–220ºF). Don't overcook your marmalade because the peel will become chewy and the sugar will caramelize, so be careful how high you push the temperature before you stop cooking.

This recipe and method works perfectly with navel oranges or Seville oranges, and I've also used it to make grapefruit marmalade using pink grapefruits flavoured with vanilla bean, and even three fruit marmalade made from oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.

If you prefer a finer-cut marmalade, try this lime marmalade recipe.

Tools and equipment

You will need a kitchen scale to make marmalade. You need to know the weight of the citrus fruits you are starting with in order to determine how much sugar to use. Most marmalades are made from a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar, by weight, if not more sugar than fruit.

To measure the temperature as the marmalade bubbles, I highly recommend using an instant-read thermometer. I use a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but it's hand-held. Marmalade splashes so this might not be ideal for you. A probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

To seal the jars, I highly recommend investing in a canning kit, which will make your life so much easier when it comes to making homemade preserves, jams, and marmalades! The kit includes:

• a big pot to boil the jars
• a rack to hold the jars
• jar-lifting tongues
• a tool for measuring headspace and removing air bubbles
• a funnel that is heatproof and non-reactive (which is especially important when dealing with high-acid preserves)

Canning the marmalade

If you choose to can the jars of marmalade for longer storage, you need to bring a large pot (also called a canning kettle) of water to boil at the same time as you wait for the marmalade to reach a boil. When the canning kettle water reaches a simmer, wash the jars and place them on a sheet pan in a warm oven at 250 °F for at least 20 minutes. You can do all these steps at the same time while the marmalade is boiling on the stove.

When the marmalade is ready, fill the jars to ¼ inch from the rim. Place the lids on the jars and tighten until fingertight. Use a jar rack or jar lifter, if you have one, to lower the filled jars into the boiling water in the canning pot. Make sure there is at least an inch of water over the jars. Once the water in the pot comes back up to a boil, boil the jars for 5 minutes. Turn the stove off and let the jars sit in the water bath for another 5 minutes. Lift the jars out of the water, and let cool for 24 hours undisturbed. The jar lids will pop indicating the vacuum seal has formed.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves.
• Jam Bakes, which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

How to eat marmalade

Orange marmalade is bittersweet with a very concentrated orange flavour. It is best paired with buttery, rich pastries and also salty foods that will balance out the bitterness of the fruit.

I like to eat marmalade with homemade croissants or this easy brioche recipe. You can also use orange marmalade as a glaze on a pie or tart, like in this orange pie.

Frequently asked questions

📖 Recipe

Print

Orange Marmalade

This gorgeous homemade orange marmalade recipe is made with navel oranges, using the whole fruit method so nothing is wasted! This recipe works with grapefruit and lemons too.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5 250 mL jars

Calories 61kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Mason jars
• Big pot
• Canning kit
• ChefAlarm thermometer

Ingredients

• 900 grams navel oranges this is roughly 5 oranges
• 950 grams granulated sugar
• 100 mL fresh lemon juice

Instructions

• Bring a large, covered pot of water to boil with the whole citrus fruit. This Cuisinart pot from Amazon is a decent size for the job. Boil the fruit until they are very tender and soft. Navel oranges take about 2.5 hours. Drain the fruit and let them cool slightly before proceeding. Discard all the water.
• Place a cutting board inside a rimmed baking sheet (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This is to catch all the citrus juices! Slice each fruit in half to expose the seeds (if the fruit you are using have seeds—navel oranges usually don't, but other citrus might). Remove the seeds if there are any, then quarter each half. Slice the fruit finely. Transfer the sliced peel, flesh, and juices into a large pot (like this Cuisinart pot from Amazon).
• To the large pot of chopped fruit, add the sugar and the lemon juice. Clip on your thermometer (like this fast-reading digital thermometer from Thermoworks). Bring the mixture to a boil on medium–high, stirring with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula (grab this spatula from Amazon). When the mixture is boiling, this is when you want to start monitoring the temperature. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it reaches 220°F (105 ºC). When the marmalade reaches this temperature, slide the pan off the heat, and let it cool for 2 minutes, then give it a good stir. This is to ensure that your canned marmalade will have an even dispersion of peel/fruit.
• Divide the mixture between 5 or 6 sterilized jars (I prefer wide-mouth mason jars like these Ball jars on Amazon), leaving a headspace of ¼ inch. If the last jar has a larger headspace, you are just going to have to eat it. Just kidding. Well, except that you can’t can it, so that will be your jar to enjoy right away, storing it in the fridge. Wipe the rims of all the jars with a lightly moistened paper towel. Top each of the jars with a sterilized lid, and tighten the band until it is finger tight. The Ball canning kit on Amazon is key for this step and the next! Get it on Amazon
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a large kitchen towel (these Nordic Ware sheet pans from Amazon are great). This will be the “cooling station” for the processed jars.
• To seal the jars, place them in a large pot, with a towel at the bottom to prevent them from rattling and cracking. Fill the pot with hot water so that the jars are completely immersed. Bring the pot of water to a boil with the lid on and once the boiling point has been reached, boil the jars for 5 minutes.
• Then take the pan off the heat, and let the jars stand in the pan for another 5 minutes.
• Carefully remove the jars from the water bath and place them on the towel-lined baking sheet. You will hear a popping sound soon after, a good sign that the vacuum seal is proper. Let the jars cool, untouched, for 24 hours before putting them away.

Nutrition

Calories: 61kcal

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