Sweet Orange Marmalade

My friend made marmalade last week and I watched him. I had never made it before. I don't like the bitterness of marmalade but I do love orange, its one of my most favorite flavors. So I decided after watching him to make some of my own. This is my version and I like it. It has a nice jell to it which set up over night. The color is pretty but it doesn't have big pieces of fruit or zest so its not like some of the classics. However, I opened one this morning and I like it alot. It has a nice orange taste with a bit of bite from the zest but its not bitter. And while you cannot see alot of the fruit or zest in the jar, when using it , you can. I did use regular sugar tho and its a full sugar recipe which I generally don't like. But I felt this probably wouldn't work if I didn't do that. I am considering trying to make a low sugar version one day which will probably be more like a jam.  

I had a few different ideas when making it but decided to just make this plain this time to see if I liked the ratio of tart to sweet. I think another time I might try some grated ginger mixed with the orange while its cooking. Or I'm thinking of adding some whiskey to the finished product before canning. Either one I think would be yummy.

 Sweet Orange Marmalade Makes about 8pts.

10 lg. navel oranges
2 lemons
water
I pkg. pectin
9 1/2c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

 Wash oranges and then cut off the ends, just enough to expose fruit. Using a grater or micro-plane grater, which I used, grate the zest off the oranges in strips as long as your able to make them. You want pieces not gratings. It is much easier to do it on micro-plane lg. hole one like you see in the picture. But it can be done on the lg. holes of a vegetable grater too. Do not grate so hard that you get lots of white pith, but don't grate so light that you don't get any. A little bit is OK so you will have to play around with it till you find what works for you. As you see in the picture this is hardly any pith. When all are zested, set aside.

 Now you want to remove as much pith as you can from the oranges by using a sharp knife and slicing it off, trying not to slice the fruit. It is OK if some remains, it melts away in the cooking somewhat. But you don't want tons of it cuz it will make it bitter. Sort of like the photo you see here.

 Then cut the orange in quarters and take out any pithy stuff inside. Navel oranges often have an end that looks like another orange is starting to grow inside it......and it can be hard. So if it is, remove this too. Then cut the quarters in half and toss in an 8qt. stock pot or larger. 

 When all are cut like this, cover the fruit with cold water and put on the stove to high heat.

 At this point I wash my jars and rings and put them in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm. You can also put the lids in some hot water about 10min. before you are going to can.

 When it starts to boil, add the zest, the juice of 2 lemons and let cook down till the fruit has fallen apart, about an hr.

 When it looks like most of it has broken down, check for any lumps and smash them a bit too.  You want to measure your fruit at this point, you should have 7c. of fruit and juice. I was shy about 1/8th of a cup so I added some orange juice I had on hand. Return measured fruit to pot and at this point add the package of pectin and stir well. Cook to a hard boil. A hard boil is one that even if stirring it , it still bubbles alot. I let it cook about 5 min. Now put 4 spoons into the freezer to use later on for the jell stage.

 Measure out your sugar and add it a bit at a time to the hot pot, stirring it in each time till all is used up. Now you will want to cook this to the jell stage...which can take awhile. Bring this to a boil but don't let it foam up. If it does lower the heat a bit.....you want it bubbling pretty good but not real hard. I tested mine about every 15-20 min. with the cold spoon from the freezer, looking for a good jell.

Take one spoon out and scoop up a bit, put it back in the freezer a minute. Check to see if it has thickened and is making wrinkles if you tilt the spoon. I found mine took an hr of cooking before I hit that stage. So keep checking. Once it gets to that stage, stir in the vanilla, take out your jars and fill them. Wipe the rims, top with lids and rings. 

 My friend didn't Water Bath them, he just filled the hot jars with the hot jam and turned them upside down to distribute the zest and fruit and seal the jars. I did that this time too. However, if you feel safer water bathing, then do it. It jelled fine over nite and all the jars were sealed.