Orange Marmalade

Most of my day was spent in the kitchen making marmalade. I've never liked marmalade until I had it in Scotland and Ireland: American marmalade is always more bitter, across the pond it's more of a sweet flavor...much more palatable.

I follow two recipes and take a bit of each one. One is from Sure-Jel and the other is from http://www.pickyourown.org/marmalade.php.

8-9 Oranges
2 Lemons
1 Pack Sure Jel
4 cups of Sugar
8-10 8oz jars and lids

Use a vegetable to peel all oranges and lemons. Be sure to keep the colored part. Peel the fruit as you would normally for eating (removing the pith).

Pull fruit apart, removing any seeds and thick skin.

Chop fruit. Be sure to do this in a tray of some sort (I used a cutting board placed inside of a cookie sheet), you want to collect all of the juice to use in the marmalade. Put all of this aside.

Take the peels and chop them up into small pieces. The best method of doing this is a food processor. It takes a long time to do this by hand.

Pour 1/2 of the chopped peels (more or less depending on how bitter or sweet you want it), 2 1/2 c water, and 1/8tsp of baking soda. Bring to boil for 20 minutes.

Measure chopped fruit and juice. You should have about 5-6 cups of fruit and juice: Bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Add in 4 cups of sugar and 1 packet of pectin mixed into 1 cup of additional orange juice (add to pot). Let boil for an additional 10 minutes, a full rolling boiling.

Prepare jars for canning.

Remove jars from water and place on work surface and fill within a 1/4" of the top. Cover with lids and place back in pot of water. Allow to boil for 10 minutes. Remove immediately from pot, twisting lids tighter, and inverting on counter. Allow to cool completely. Jam will take up to two weeks to set up.

Enjoy!