Meyer Lemon Marmalade
john barry
Rainy Paddy’s Day Parade.
Hello there. Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day! Are you looking forward to Spring as much as I am? Daylight savings plus having a few sunny days has been an incredible prelude to warmer weather. I’m looking forward to getting outside more, longer days, grilling, gardening, camping, the pool, all of it! I know, I’m getting ahead of myself by a few months with some of that stuff, but I also know that time flies.
I’m really looking forward to Spring for another reason too. By the time March comes around, I’m so sick of eating all of the same things. Broccoli, cauliflower, oranges, apples. These foods are fine, but I’m so ready for some new fruits and veggies. But I have found a new ingredient that has improved my bread baking. For the past month or so, I’ve been making bread with Red Fife wheat grown and milled here in Wisconsin. It is SO good. The Red Fife flour tastes nutty and is a little bit reminiscent of rye, in a very subtle way. I love this homemade bread toasted with butter and jam.
I also love homemade jam, another favorite summer pastime, picking fruit and canning. I love how there’s always a new fruit in season every few weeks throughout the summer. And having jam all winter isn’t too bad either. I still remember going strawberry picking with my mom and my brother when I was small and we lived in Oregon. We would get pounds and pounds of berries and make so many jars of strawberry jam. That jam was amazing. Nothing like store bought. I still love making jam. And even though I usually think of it as a summer activity, citrus fruits work great for winter jam.
Last time I was at Trader Joe’s I bought a bag of Meyer lemons. When I got home, I stuck them in the back of my fridge where they’ve been ever since. Meyer lemons are so good, but for me, they aren’t sour enough to use like a regular lemon or lime, so aside from putting in a dessert, I struggle with how to use them. Good thing I ran out of jam yesterday. Well, I never really run out actually, unless I’m too lazy to walk down to the store where we almost always have some jam, marmalade, golden syrup, and all kinds of things I can use. Still, I had these lemons and they wouldn’t last much longer.
I read a couple of recipes for Meyer Lemon Marmalade. It seemed like a lot of the steps were designed to minimize the bitterness that can be present with too much rind and pith which makes sense. But those steps can be a pain. I read a few recipes that were simpler, but a lot of their reviews complained of bitterness, so I decided to take the time to remove the pith completely and blanch the rind multiple times. It took some time, but I was just hanging out around the house anyway and the result was worth it.
Ingredients
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup sugar
6 Meyer lemons
1 tbs pectin
Directions
Juice the lemons
Place the seeds in a cheesecloth bag and set aside. (optional)
Remove flesh and pith so that you have only the skin of each lemon left.
Cut the lemon rinds into strips.
Place in pot and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil and boil for one minute.
Strain and run cold water over them.
Repeat boiling for one minute and straining twice.
Place rind back in the pot, add sugar, reserved juice, pectin and bag of seeds.
Simmer for about 45 minutes until set.
Spoon into a jar and refrigerate.
Jam will last 2 -4 weeks.
*Note: This jam will firm up a lot as it cools, don't cook it down until it has a jam-like consistency or it will end up too firm. I stopped cooking mine when it was about the consistency of maple syrup, maybe slightly thinner.
The seeds have pectin in them which will help the jam thicken without adding pectin, but you can skip this step and it will be fine.
Little lemon caps.
Pulp, throw this away.
Rind - cut this up.
You should be able to get this at the grocery store. You can make this jam without this but it may take longer to set.
Blanching the rind.
Here it is when it’s almost done, you can see the bubbles get larger.