Orange Marmalade

 This is a delicious marmalade from Bernardin.  A wonderful way to spend an early spring morning, waiting for summer canning season to finally arrive.  It’s important not to deviate from the ingredient measurements or methods for the fruit pectin to do its work.

To make about 7 x 250 ml jars

Ingredients

4                   oranges

2                   lemons

2 1/2 cups      water

1/8th tsp        baking soda

6 1/2 cups      granulated sugar

1 pkg             Bernardin Original Fruit Pectin

Directions:

Place jars on a rack in the steam canner, bring the water to a gentle simmer to keep jars hot until ready to use.

Wash, then dry the lids, set aside until needed.

Thoroughly wash oranges and lemons; remove peel in large segments. Scrape half of white pith from peel; discard pith. Thinly slice remaining peel and combine with water and baking soda in a stainless steel saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil and boil gently, covered, 20 minutes.

Using a sharp knife, remove the outer membrane from the peeled fruit, discard.  Wo rking over a bowl to catch juice and pulp, separate segments from membrane, discard membrane and seeds.  Combine boiled peel and pulp/juice mixture, cover and boil gently 10 minutes; set aside.

Measure sugar and set aside.

Measure 4 cups prepared citrus mixture into a large, deep stainless steel saucepan.  Whisk in Fruit pectin until dissolved.

Stirring frequently, bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.  Add sugar.  Stirring constantly, return the mixture to a sull roiling boil, boil hard for one minute.  Remove from heat, skim foam.

Quickly ladle marmalade into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch of too of ar.  Using nonmetallic utensils, remove air bubbles and adjust headspace., if required, by adding more marmalade.  Wipe jar rim removing any food residue.  Centre lid on clean air rin,  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.  Return filled jar to rack in steam canner.  Repeat for remaining marmalade.

When canner reaches the “green” zone, start counting down the processing time- 10 minutes.

When processing time is complete, remove the canner lid and let the jars sit for about five minutes.  Remove jars without tilting them and place them upright on a protected work surface.  Cool upright, undisturbed.  After cooling, check jar seals.  Label and store jars in a cool, dark place.

KETO Strawberry Jam

 Thanks to Wendy at the Kicking Carbs blog.  This recipe is based on one of her posts, with a few adjustments at this end.  It will make approximately 4 x 250 ml jars which you should refrigerate or freeze - it is not a canning recipe.

TO MAKE 3 X 250 ML JARS

Ingredients

 1 1/2 lbs     strawberries, hulled and quartered

1/2 cup        allulose (or other keto diet friendly sweetener

1 tsp            vanilla extract

1/8 tsp         sea salt

1                 Lime, zested and juiced

4 tbsp.        No sugar pectin

                    water

Directions:

Place the strawberries in a slow cooker, mash with potato masher.  Add allulose, vanilla and salt.  Stir to combine.

Cover and cook n high fr 1.5 hours.  Remash.  Whisk in the lime juice, lime zest and pectin.  Cover and cook for five minutes more.

Pour into clean 250 ml jars.  Be sure to leave about 1/2 inch space, especially if you are freezing.  I put the jars in the fridge to cool.  They can remain in the fridge for up to one month or freeze for six months.

** my changes:  I cooked on the stove for about 1.5 hours - bring to a low boil, then lower the heat to maintain a simmer for about 1.5 hours.  Check and stir to avoid sticking.  

I didn’t have limes so used lemon zest, and 1 tbsp lime juice. 

After cooling, checked on the set and decided to “loosen” the jam.  Empty the jars of jam into a bowl and whisk in the water, little by little until you are satisfied with the consistency.  We used about 1/4 cup of water. 

Apricot Red Currant Jam

 What to do with a couple of leftover pounds of beautiful fresh apricots?  I have been growing red currants in my backyard garden for a few years now.  Is this jam worthy of my spending an hour carefully picking the four cups of tiny red currants I needed.  I can tell you now that it was well worth the effort.  This is an unusual jam- apricot pieces floating in a red currant “jelly”, beautiful to look at.  

To make approx 7 x 250 ml jars

Ingredients:

2.2 lbs    fresh apricots, washed pitted and chopped to make 5 cups 

4 cups    stemmed red currants, rinsed *

Zest and juice of one lemon (I added about a tbsp of lemon juice as well) Remove the zest in one large strip.

7 cups     sugar

Directions:

Prepare the jars for cannning and keep hot until ready to use. Combine the chopped apricots and the red currants (see below if you want a seedless mixture) with the lemon zest and juice in a large deep canning pot.  Bring to a boil.

Maintaining the boil, gradually stir in the sugar, continue stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.  Boil vigorously about 15 minutes or until the mixture reaches the gel stage (220 degrees on the instant read thermometer).  Remove from the heat and skim any foam.

Ladle the hot jam into hot jars to 5cm of the top of the jar.  Remove air bubbles and adjust head space if needed.  Wipe the jar rim and screw on the lids..

Process 10 minutes in the steam canner (or boiling water bath).  Carefully remove the lid after 10 minutes, turn off the heat.  Let the jars sit in the pot for about 10 minutes before removing and cooling.

*red currants have seeds which some people find objectionable in jams.  To make a seedless jam, bring the prepared red currants to a boil, cook and mash until tender, about 5 minutes. Pour the mixture through a fine cloth-lined sieve.  Use the back of a spoon and squeeze the cloth to force as much of the mixture as possible through the sieve.  

WANNA PLSY?  I made the same recipe but substituted black currants for the red.