Orange Ginger Marmalade

The recipe I had called for only 6 oranges and they would equal 5 cups of fruit. HA! I followed the recipe as best as I could but there was no way on this Earth that I was going to get five cups of fruit and juice from 6 oranges after taking away the pith and membrane. I do not have a ton of pictures but enough so that you can get the gist of how it was made. I was afraid at first because I had never made a marmalade before. They came out lovely, if I do say so myself.

You want to have all your jars, collars, and lids cleaned and ready. You should also have your water bath canner filled to right amount and have that start boiling. It can take awhile for that to happen as most of you know. Now you can start the recipe.

Orange Ginger Marmalade

Ingredients:

1 4lb bag of oranges so that you get  5 cups of fruit
Juice from one lemon
7 T standard pectin
7 cups of white sugar * have this already in a big bowl so you can dump it all in at once*.
1 T freshly grated ginger

Directions:

You really do not need the peel from a whole bag of oranges. So You are going to want to peel about 6 oranges.  Making sure you have as little of the white pith as possible. The white pith is bitter. Try your hardest to not get any in the fruit collection. Then you are going to slice all that peel into long, very thin, slices. Boil some water in a small pot. Add the orange peel and cook for 10 minutes. Strain and set aside the peel.

You are going to want to do most of this work over a large bowl so that you can catch all the juice. You want the juice, the *meat* of the orange and very little membrane. It was hard for me to not get any membrane at all but I think I did a good job for a first timer. Keep doing this until you have 5 cups of fruit. After I did this, I just added the juice of one lemon to this measuring cup.

This is fresh ginger. We always have a hunk of this in the house. You want to prepare enough ginger so that you can get a tablespoons amount. You just break off a chunk, peel, and then grate it. My house is smelling really good right about now.

In a large heavy bottomed pot, put in your peel, five cups of orange fruit and juice plus that lemon juice, and  7 tablespoons of standard powdered pectin. They sell it in jars now so you can adjust the amount you need.  I do two T of pectin  at a time, mix it in and then add two more. It can clump really easy. If that happens, just grab a whisk and beat the crap out it until it is smooth again. You want your heat to be on high. And you are going to want good shoes, an old shirt, and maybe long sleeves on because you are going to stir the entire time and hot jam will be flying. You do not want the bottom to burn or it will ruin all of your work! When it starts to boil while you are stirring, that is a rolling boil. Dump all of your sugar in at once. Stir! Stir! Stir!

Time to dump the ginger in. Make sure there are no big hunks. You want it to be finely grated so you get pops of ginger when you eat the jam. Ginger is even good for your immune system so this is going to be a good thing for all that spread on their toast.

 By this time, your arm feels like it is going to fall off but trust me! All that stirring is going to be so worth it in the end. This is what it will look like with all that sugar in there. It doubled in amounts. Now when the rolling boil starts again, you want to set a timer for 2 minutes. It is going to quickly hit the hard boil and you cannot stop stirring now. After the time is done, put the pot on a cool burner. Let it sit for 10 minutes. This insures that all the fruit will not float to the top of the jar.

You are going to fill your jars leaving a 1/2 inch of head space at the top. Wipe the tops of jars of any jam. Put on lids and screw on caps (not super tight). Put in boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Take the jars out, put them on a dish rag, make sure the jars do not touch, and leave them be. Your house will smell of citrus, and you will hear the lovely pop pop pop that tells you that the jars have sealed.
This recipe makes 9 half pints of lusciousness. Enjoy!