makes 16 x 6 oz. jars
Ingredients:
1 kg Meyer lemons
water
sugar
Utensils:
a scale (non-negotiable)
a non-reactive container large enough to contain everything
3 squares of cheese cloth + butcher’s twine
a large enough pot to cook the marmalade
16 x 6 oz. jars
a candy thermometre (optional)
1. Wash and slice all of the lemons while carefully leaving the pips intact and saving them on the side. The lemon slices will need to soak overnight in 1.4 times their weight in water.
2. Divide the pips you saved between the three squares of cheese cloth. make tight little packets and tie with string. This will give the marmalade its pectin.
3. The next day, boil the lemon slices and pip packets in their soaking water. Boil the mixture down by half. Be careful when stirring because the slices will start to disintegrate if you manipulate them too much. Or stir all you want if you prefer your marmalade with smaller pieces of fruit. Put everything overnight in the fridge again.
4. In the morning, remove the pip packets and weight the mixture. Add sugar in a 1:1 ratio to the weight of the lemon mixture. After adding the sugar, boil one final time for the sugar to finish gelling. This will take about twenty minutes, the time it takes for the marmalade to reach 223F on a candy thermometre. Your marmalade should darken in colour and gain a heavier syrupy consistency.
5. Can the marmalade while it is hot or wait until it cools down for storage in the fridge. Canned marmalade lasts until almost forever. It will last about 14 days in the fridge once opened (or if it’s not canned).
