Friday Night Marmalade

Is this a sign of ‘growing up’, when you spend Friday night making marmalade? Hmmm.

So anyway, I made my first-ever batch of marmalade on Friday night. Yay! 🙂 Made from grapefruit from the tree in my garden, even. Now I am feeling very domesticated, yes indeed.

It turns out marmalade is really easy to make. Grapefruit, lemon, water, sugar, a big pot and heat, and you’re done! Sweet. It makes a lot more than I thought it would, too. I used just under half the recipie, with three (very small, more like oversized lemons) grapefruit and one lemon, and got over three jars of marmalade from it! (And then promptly ran out of jars, since I wasn’t at all prepared for it to actually work out, so dumped the remaining bit in a Tupperware container. Nana that I am, turns out I have lots of Tupperware containers.) It actually tastes pretty good, too. Especially on the banana loaf I also made. (Tee hee! I had a creating-things weekend. Gotta love those.)

Anyways, here’s the recipie I used (more or less):
– three small grapefruit
– 1 lemon
– scrub the skin of all the fruit to get rid of any waxy stuff, then peel in long strips, being careful not to get much of the white pith coz it’s bitter and you don’t want it in your marmalade
– cut the peel into 5cm strips, and slice thinly
– cut up the fruit and discard the pips
– place it all in a bowl with 5 cups water, cover and leave overnight
– the next day, put it in a large pot, and heat for about 45 mins
– take off the heat, add 1kg of white sugar, stir until dissolved
– place back onto the heat, stir until it’s boiling
– simmer for 45-55 minutes, stirring regularly
– test if it’s set by placing a small amount on a cold (i.e. been in the freezer) saucer. Put the saucer back in the freezer for 30 seconds. Then push the marmalade with your finger – if it wrinkles on the surface, it’s ready to go!
– put it in jars, spread on toast or banana loaf, and you’re all good

Marmalade