Lime Marmalade

[Hilary B]

Cheap limes again this week, bought 2 bowlfuls (£1 a bowl) turned out to be 1.6Kg, so I made 10lb marmalade, total cost of ingredients £5.....
Now just got to find enough jars for the 'proper' marmalade (3lbs Sevilles = nearly another 10lb marmalade)

[wheatleys wheels]

oooh, I would love to know how to make lime marmalade. Lemon lime or any one of them are my favorite.

[Hilary B]

I have one recipe for any variety of marmalade
1lb citrus fruit (unless you are using seville oranges or limes, you need to include some lemons)
2lb sugar
1pint water.
Get the peel and 'rest of fruit' separated (I halve each one and scoop out the insides), put a little less than half the water in a pan with the insides, cut the peel as fine as you want it and put in another pan with the remaining water.
Boil both lots for abut 2 hours, or until the peel will cut with the back of a table-knife.
If you have a hand blender, whizz the 'insides', then (whether blended or not) pour and rub through a seive into the peel pan. You want as much goo as possible added to the peel.
Add the sugar, heat VERY GENTLY until the sugar is fully dissolved, then boil to 'setting point'. Be careful not to let it boil over, it needs to boil hard to remove excess water.

To test for set, put a few saucers in the fridge when you start the boiling, after a while (I'd recommend at least 10 mins) take one out, pour a teaspoon of mixture onto the cold saucer and return to fridge TURN THE HEAT DOWN LOW. After 1 min, if the marmalade is ready, the bit on the saucer will 'wrinkle' when pushed with a finger.
If it isn't ready, boil for another 10 mins and test again.
With experience you get to recognise the 'nearly ready' stage, but it is impossible to describe.
While boiling and testing put clean jam jars in the oven on lowest setting. Once the marmalade is ready pour into warmed jars. Either cover AT ONCE while really hot, or allow to cool completely before covering.
Once cool, it's ready to use!

There are less complex ways with the cutting-up and first cooking, this is the one I like because it gets the most of that pectin-rich goo without any 'bits' other than the peel.
From the 'add sugar' stage, all recipes are pretty much the same.

[wheatleys wheels]

Many thanks for the recipe, will have to give it a try when I have enough fruit.

[Hilary B]

Many thanks for the recipe, will have to give it a try when I have enough fruit.

A couple of grapefruit and one lemon will make about 4lb marmalade. As long as you keep to the 'twice as much sugar as fruit' mix, you can make as much or as little as you like.
For small quantities I use the pressure cooker to start, cut-up peel goes in the separator, the rest in the base of the pressure cooker with the water, takes 40 mins at full pressure, after that the recipe is the same.