Preserving fruit and vegetables: making marmalade
By Betty Fowler
What can you do when you've got excess cumquats and you want to make
cumquat marmalade?
I've included a few recipes for you and hope you will find them useful.
My husband really likes the cumquat preserves - he found a bottle that I had done a couple of years ago
at the back of the cupboard. They had gone a little dark but the flavour had matured something out of this world.
We have a Ngarmi cumquat and the fruit that it produces is amazing.
I cannot use all of the fruit even with the bottling I do. I find the seeds can be off
putting to some as they do have a lot.
Any citrus fruit makes lovely marmalade especially if it is freshly grown and picked
and used straight away.
Cumquat preserve
Cover fruit with cold water and boil till
you can stick the head of a pin into them making sure the skin is tender.
Carefully take the fruit up in a bowl with liquid and leave till the next
day.
Carefully remove fruit from liquid and to every 500gr (1 lb) of fruit allow
750 gr (1 ¼ lbs)
Sugar and 1 cup of liquid .
Bring sugar and liquid to boil, prick the cumquats and
place in boiling syrup.
Boil till clear and syrup if of a nice consistency. Bottle in
sterilized jars.
Cumquat marmalade
Cut fruit finely and remove seeds. For each cup of fruit
add 2 cups of water.
Bring the water and fruit to boil and simmer until the skin
is very soft.
For every cup of cooked fruit and water add 1 cup of sugar.
Bring to boil and rapidly cook until jells.
Bottle hot in sterilized bottles and seal.
Cook in batches of 4 cups fruit/liquid to 4 cups sugar
at a time instead of making all the marmalade at once.
Repeat with other batches.
I find that this usually only takes about 20 minutes to cook
and produces a light marmalade whereas cooking it all at once
does not allow the liquid to evaporate as quickly and can produce darker marmalade.
Mixed fruit marmalade
2 oranges, 1 lemon, cumquats, grapefruit.
Cut up fruit finely. Remove seeds and place in dish to
measure. For each measure of fruit add 2 measures of water.
Bring to boil and simmer gently until the fruit is very soft.
To make marmalade - 4 cups of cooked fruit with liquid
to 4 cups sugar.
Bring to boil and rapidly boil till jells
Bottle whilst hot and seal in sterilized bottles.
(The sort of fruit you use to make the marmalade can depend
on what you have on hand and can be any mixture - make sure the
fruit is not too ripe though especially the oranges and they will
not set as readily – adding powdered pectin could help in this
case)
To test for jell - place a small amount of a plate and
let cool slightly. With a spoon or finger push the marmalade forward
gently, if a skin crinkles in front of spoon it is cooked enough.
Cool the cooked marmalade a little and then bottle. This saves
the fruit from rising to the top of the bottle.
Last updated
23 October, 2008
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