Citrus Marmalade

That Paddington bear is one of taste

I’ve always found it some special kind of wonderful how abundant citrus is in the winter. It’s like the earth knows we’re all about to get a cold and its giving us ample vitamin C to compensate and prepare us. Sumo oranges are especially delicious right now.

I love marmalade. I love bittersweet things. It was recently my son’s 3rd birthday and I bought a large bag of tangerines for the party. Unfortunately I forgot about them and we found myself with quite the surplus of citrus. Add to that that I bought costco amounts of grapefruit and sumo oranges. So why not make marmalade?

For this recipe I use grapefruit, sumo oranges, and A LOT of tangerines — Yields 3 quarts. I make a lot because the peeling and chopping is labor intensive so I freeze half.

Recipe:

• 3 pounds citrus: I used a mix of mostly tangerines, sumo oranges, and pink grapefruits.

• 2 cups of sugar

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1 pinch of salt

• 1 cup of water

Method

• Peel your citrus and remove as much of the white part as you can

• Chop the peels into small pieces

• Rough chop the fruit, avoid slicing into any seeds and removing any seeds along the way and set aside.

• Add peels into a large pot and wash the peels with cold water.

• Add (only) the peels to a large pot and cover with ten cups of cold water. Bring this to a boil.

• Once boiling, discard the water and cover the peels again with cold water. We do this to discard that first layer of yuck from the peels.

• Bring this to a boil for at least 90 minutes

• Add the chopped fruit and return the pot to a boil. Cook until the liquid is reduced by about 1/3, another 45 minutes or so.

• Add the sugar and stir. Make sure it’s disolved.

• Mix everything very well and add 1-2 cups of water.

• Using an immersion blender, blend 1/4 of the mixture and mix everything until it’s homogenous.

• When the marmalade is nearly thick to your preference, add the lemon juice. Allow that to boil for 3-5 minutes and turn off the heat. Let cool.

My favorite way to enjoy this is with a nice slice of sourdough and butter!