Orange Marmalade

Total Time: 4 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 3 hrs Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• 6 -7 large juicy navel oranges
• 3 -4 large juicy lemons
• 1 cup granulated sugar, plus
• 4 lbs granulated sugar, plus
• more granulated sugar, divided,to taste
• 1 cup water, plus
• 5 cups water, divided
• 1 cup dry wine
• 2 -3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 -3 teaspoon citric acid (citric acid granules) or 1 -3 lime, juice of (optional)
• 1 box ball fruit jell pectin or 1 box other no-sugar needed pectin

Recipe

• 1 equipment you will need: 1 large plastic bowl with lid; 1 large nonreactive dutch oven; 1 water-bath processor or very large stock pot with a rack to keep jars off bottom of pot; 1 pair jar-lifting tongs (optional, but very handy); 1 magnetic lid lifter (optional, but very handy); 14-15 half-pint or 7 1-pint canning jars with threaded rings and new lids.
• 2 cut the zest (the thin orange portion of the peel) from all of the oranges using a vegetable peeler or sharp paring knife (about 1/16" thick or less and about 3/4" wide).
• 3 cut the zest into thin strips about 1/16" wide, and set aside.
• 4 using a micro-plane or regular grater, grate the zest from the lemons, and add to the orange zest.
• 5 peel the oranges and lemons with a sharp knife, removing most of the thin outer membrane from the fruit, as well as the portion of the peel.
• 6 cut the flesh of the lemons and oranges into 1/4" thick slices, remove seeds as necessary, chop into 1/4" pieces, saving as much juice as possible, and place in a large plastic bowl.
• 7 if desired, mash the fruit just a little bit using a potato masher, but you want it to stay fairly chunky.
• 8 in a medium saucepan, combine the 1 cup water, wine, lemon juice, and sugar over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved.
• 9 add the orange and lemon zest, and stir to combine.
• 10 bring to a boil, reduce heat to a good simmer, and cook until zest strips are fairly tender.
• 11 remove from heat, and set aside to cool.
• 12 add zest mixture and 5 cups of water to fruit, stir to combine, cover tightly, and refrigerate or set in a cool place for 24 hours or a little longer.
• 13 this aging is mandatory for flavor development.
• 14 before starting to actually make the marmalade, assemble all necessary equipment.
• 15 fill a water bath or very large stock pot with enough hot water to cover jars by at least 1-2".
• 16 jars can be stacked, if necessary, while processing.
• 17 it will probably take longer to heat the water than to prepare the marmalade, so give it a good head start.
• 18 sterilize canning jars by running them through a full hot-cycle of the dishwasher, or wash in hot, soapy water, rinse well, and drain.
• 19 in either case, transfer the jars to a 250 degee f oven until ready to fill them.
• 20 place new canning lids in a small saucepan of boiling water until needed.
• 21 you should have between 9 and 10 pounds (18-20 pints) of fruit and zest mixture at this point, but this will reduce down to 7+ pounds (14-15 pints) during cooking.
• 22 transfer fruit and zest mixture to a large, nonreactive dutch oven over high heat, and bring to a full boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan regularly to prevent scorching.
• 23 taste, and adjust tartness to taste using sour salt or lime juice (sour salt, 1 tsp at a time, is easiest), and adjust sweetness to taste with additional sugar.
• 24 continue to boil, stirring and scraping bottom regularly to prevent scorching, until mixture reaches a temperature of 220 degrees f on a instant-reading or candy thermometer (actually, 8 degrees f above the boiling point of water at your elevation).
• 25 stir in the'no-sugar required pectin', and continue to boil for 1 minute longer, remove from heat, and allow to set for 2-3 minutes; setting helps solids to stay in suspension instead of sinking to the bottom of the jars.
• 26 stir marmalade well, and ladle into sterilized canning jars to within 1/8" of the rim.
• 27 clean the rim and threads of each jar with a dampened paper towel, top with sterilized new lids, screw on threaded rings, and tighten hand-tight.
• 28 immediately transfer to a water bath with enough boiling water to cover jars by at least 1-2".
• 29 process for 10 minutes, starting timing when water returns to a boil.
• 30 remove jars from water bath, invert onto a kitchen towel, and allow to set without disturbing until cooled completely.
• 31 turn jars over, and press down on each lid.
• 32 if it does not pop up and down with pressure, the jar is sealed and can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
• 33 jars with lids that do pop up and down have not sealed properly and should be refrigerated and used first.
• 34 makes about 14-15 half-pint or 7 1-pint jars, with a little extra for the fridge.