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.