marvelous ginger marmalade

Not sure I have ever sought out marmalade for my toast, but on occasion I have indeed indulged in its citrus sweetness. For some reason I decided on a whim in the local natural food store to load my cart with 8 lbs of organic Mexican oranges and a big bag of candy ginger, In that moment I dreamed of lovely jars of marmalade, which seemed to be festive, although oranges are certainly not  local or seasonal, nor have they ever been part of my holiday traditions, yet here I set out to get jamming on the snowy solstice.  This recipe yielded a really unique and kicking gingery citrus spread that had not to many chunky bits and just the perfect balance of sweet and heat. We will be enjoying this recipe for years to come I am certain it will make many a repeat performance in my kitchen. I am dreaming of ginger cookie sandwiches with marmalade cream filling…

I used Food in Jars to guide me through my first marmalade making adventure and hybridised  her cara cara ginger marmalade recipe, I doubled her batch (to make some extra holiday treats) and adapted it as follows:

Using a serrated  peeler (for soft fruit peeling) remove peel (with as little pith as possible) from all 8 lbs of oranges (a daunting task indeed)

Finely finely finely slice this peel into tiny ribbons and set to simmer with about 8 cups of water, for at least 30 minutes (or until tender), strain and reserve liquid. while the peel is cooking down you can get to work on segmenting the oranges.

Slice the oranges lengthwise into quarters and cut fruit sections out of the pith and bitter innards. Keep all juice and set the lot to simmer in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat.

Add 1 package of Pomona’s pectin powder to 12 cups of cane sugar (remember this is a double batch so don’t get scared but the sugar volumes, this recipe yields 20 cups+ of jam) wisk to incorporate, then add to the fruit pot along with calcium water 2 tbsp from the Pomona package. You could use conventional pectin, but I really adore the more natural low sugar version.

To the fruit add in 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Finely slice 1 cup of organic candied ginger pieces and add them to the fruit too.

finally add the softened zest and 4 cups of the reserves peel liquid and allow the batch to cook down until thick and set to your likeliness using the spoon back or cold plate method of testing set-ness. This should take about 55 minutes, stir often so as not to scotch.

One your jam has jelled it time to portion into clear hot sterilized jars, then water bath process for 10-15 minutes (10 minute < 1000 ft, add 5 minutes for higher altitudes like me way up on a Kootenay mountain)

This marmalade is so very nice. I promise even if you think you don’t like the stuff… this recipe may very well change your mind!

Tags: canning, ginger marmelade, jamming, marmelade, orange jam