Sweet and Tangy Tangerine Marmalade.

Last year when  our tangerine tree was full of ripe fruit I got in and made  marmalade the traditional way, sliced up the fruit on my mandolin, added sugar and boiled the heck out of it until it jelled.
It  was  average, but it has all been eaten so can't have been too bad.
We aren't as a rule big marmalade eaters, but that being said I won't waste the fruit either, and can always give it away.

This is what I picked of our small tree, which was all reachable  from the ground. We have had a few frosts which has sweetened them up, some years we don't have that and they are very tart to say the least.
So I selected about 24  of  the larger ones first and gave them a good scrub to remove any dust and mould, which we get here a bit on the coast sometimes.

After that I  got my potato peeler and removed just the thin orange  peel( not the white pith) off most of the fruit( adjust the amount depending on how sweet/bitter you want the marmalade.

I then placed the peel into my food processor and chopped up until it was a lot finer. (my advice  after doing batch 1 was to microwave this peel for a few minutes to soften it a bit  before adding to the  jam pot )

I then cut all the  tangerines  in half around the middle and removed the seeds(reserving any juice to go into the pot.

I then removed the flesh from the skins( a tedious but worthwhile job) You need to have about 2 kgs of flesh)I also put this into the food processor before adding to the pot.

In the pot I put the peel,the juice,the flesh, 2 tblspns lemon juice, and 2 kgs of CSR jam sugar (sugar with pectin  incorporated into it)
This was  then heated slowly while   mixing  the ingredients until combined thoroughly and then bringing to a boil and boiling rapidly for about 10 minutes.

After this time, I turned off the heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes before  filling  clean warm jars(no need to sterilize jars if water bathing for 10 min or more)
The rims are then wiped clean with paper towel soaked in white vinegar, warmed lids and bands applied and then they are placed in the water bath of hot water ,covered by a couple of inches, brought to the boil and maintained boiling for 10 minutes.

After the allotted time was up I turned off the preserver,removed the lid and let sit for a further 5 minutes. I then removed all the jars out onto a towel covered  bench out of  the draught  to allow to cool for 24 hours.

I stll had many more tangerines so I decided to juice  a pile as well and can that.

Citrus juice must be heat treaded before placing into the jars and then water bathing. You have to heat the juice up to 190 Deg F (about 88 deg C) and maintaining this temperature for about 5 minutes. You then pour the juice into warm/hot jars and water bath 15 minutes.

I got 7 pints of juice which will come in handy, but at least now if someone offers me  citrus, I will gladly take and juice and can where as before I would kindly decline as my limitations were marmalade alone.

I also made  a second batch of marmalade, putting into pints as I had ran out of smaller jars here on the coast( plenty at the farm though) But I decided to add  chopped naked ginger(same as crystallized but with less sugar) to the second batch for  a slight variation. I do prefer to have ginger in  the marmalade I eat, we love ginger with  lots of things.
This should be a nice amount for us, with a few give aways this should last us the year..
Who knows what next year will bring in the way of citrus, we only have a ruby grapefruit,a lemon and a lime up at the farm until we plant more.
I would like to plant a mandarin and a good eating orange, that would probably do us.
All I have to do now is pack these jars away in the cupboard.
So until we catch up again down the road I hope you all take care,
Cheers,
Jane.