For those of you who have recently sighted a blue moon, this is why. No, I have not been hacked by a sugar junkie - but if you would like to believe I never touch sugar then it may be best you abandon reading my post. This one comes with a sugar warning! Yes - I did actually go out and buy sugar to make delicious marmalade.
As children @craigcryptoking and I grew up on the beautiful but humid southern coast of South Africa. Apart from the sea as our backyard the other borders were massive sugar cane fields. One of our favourite things to do on the way to the beach was nibble on sugar cane. It is one of the wonders of the world. The problem with sugar itself is that it is highly processed and, like gluten and preservatives, in just about everything. The excessive quantities of sugar that the average person eats in their lifetime is linked to all sorts of health issues and is a reason I keep it out of my house, as much as possible. But everything in moderation. Hence the marmalade cook-up.
Our homestead has two incredible old trees. Lemon and clementine - or as South Africans call them, naartjies. From what we gather both citrus trees are nearing a century in age. They have blessed us abundantly in delicious fruit year in and year out. In fact the lemon tree bears prolifically twice a year. We freeze lemons. We preserve them. We bake all sorts of delicious foods using lemons but this year I agreed to Farmer Buckaroos annual request for marmalade. I bought sugar. He kept picking buckets of lemons and I kept giving them away. Until one day the patient marmalade loving man started chopping up lemons and clementines. So I measured out the sugar.
The thing with making jam is that it takes time. Preparing the fruit. Soaking correct quantities in sugar. Then the loooooooooooong slow cook until exactly the right moment that the pectin kicks in to set the jam.
If you don't cook enough you have a runny jam. Overcooking and the jam becomes very thick plus it crystalizes. My favourite marmalade is not orange but lemon with a mix of other citrus.
When it comes to food preparation I like simple and easy. Because I make so much, from scratch, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. A friend recommended I use the food processor instead of spending hours cutting the lemon and clementine skin to just the right thickness.
Theoretically the pips of the lemon is where the pectin lies but I was not too keen on making a bag to hold hundreds of lemon pips to cook in the marmalade. We cut of the ends of both lemons and clementines. Then halved them to fish out most of the pips. The extreme bitterness comes from both the white pith as well as too many pips. You want a tart marmalade but not bitter.
Many health nuts try to cut back drastically on the sugar. What I have learned is that the process needs sugar. The less sugar the longer the cooking time and the more the fruit is rendered down. Which then results in a concentrated marmalade and therefor a lot of sugar. So less is not better!
The only ingredients you need for marmalade is your selection of citrus, and a slightly lesser quantity of sugar. You can cook as much or as little marmalade as you want. The ratio is 750g sugar for every 1kg of fruit. With a big bucket of lemons and another of clementines we made 10kg of marmalade.
You need to keep the marmalade on a medium to low heat and stir regularly. Skim the froth off the top. A rough guesstimate of cook time is about one and a half hours. The fruit changes colour but you don't want it too dark. Make sure you bottle your marmalade in sterilized bottles and as soon as possible after turning off the heat.
For a truly spectacular combination of zesty flavour consider including grapefruit or pomelo or clementine with your lemon. I love the lemon because it is so much more sour than orange marmalade. Funnily enough, my children, who love their healthy treats, opted against the marmalade. I had baked yummy Zesty Chocolate Cupcakes which I gobbled up with a dollop of marmalade. My children turned their noses up at the marmalade and reached for the plain cupcakes. I am happy that they are learning to make their own decisions and to make healthy choices - so much for being deprived of sugar!
