Kumquat Marmalade .com



Kumquat Marmalade

I pick the kumquats as they become well ripe and process them for eventual canning.

I try to process about a gallon at a time. The first step is to wash them thoroughly. I put them into my kitchen sink, and cover them with fairly warm water with about a teaspoon of detergent. I swish them around a bit and then let them soak for ten minutes or so before rinsing and drying them. I then deseed then while watching TV. Deseeding is an art you can develop. Most of the seeds are concentrated about ¾ of the way up from the stem of the fruit. With a sharp and serrated knife, slice through the kumquat at the ¾ point and most of the seed will be exposed for easy extraction. I can usually do a gallon in about one hour. I then place them into a plastic bag, a newspaper sleeve is great, and put then into the freezer until I am ready for further processing. You can skip this step if you want to go directly to grinding them up in a meat grinder.

When I have enough deseeded kumquats, either frozen or just deseeded, to make at least nine cups of “mash”, I put them through my meat grinder. I place nine cups of “mash” into a one-gallon zip-lock bag and freeze it until I am ready to start canning. About ten minutes of microwave defrosting will thaw the batch.

I use two large stew pots, about four gallons each, to cook and can the marmalade. One is to cook the mixture and the other to boil the jars and keep them hot until I start putting the cooked mixture into the jars. Nine cups of the kumquat “mash” will make approximately 12 pints of marmalade.

I use “CERTO” liquid pectin for the thickening agent. Each box of pectin has two packets of the pectin and recipes for making jams, jellys and marmalades. Under “Orange Marmalade” you will find the basic recipe that I modify & use primarily for quantities of ingredients. It shows 3 cups of fruit & 5 cups of sugar for each pouch of pectin. I make triple batches, so I have nine cups of kumquat “mash”, 15 cups of sugar and 4 ½ cups of water, and three packets of pectin ready to go.

I use the CERTO instructions for “Cooked Jam & Jelly Directions” as a general guide. I put the kumquat mash into the cooking pot first. I then put in 4 ½ cups of water and start high heating the mixture. Constant stirring is necessary to keep the mixture from sticking to the bottom. As I heat the mixture I constantly keep adding the 15 cups of sugar to the mix. Usually, about the time I get all the sugar in, the mixture is nearing the boil point. I try to get about `10 minutes of boiling time. You may have to turn the heat down occasionally to keep it from boiling over. After about ten minutes of boiling, quickly add the pectin to the mixture and stir for exactly one minute after a full boil has been achieved again. Turn the heat off and start ladleing the mixture into the jars per direction # 8 in the Certo directions section. Be very careful when ladleing the mixture. It is very hot.

The marmalade usually sets up within six hours of canning. Keep the canned jars in a cool area until you use them. If it is exposed to heat for a few hours, such as in a hot car, it will usually revert to liquid again, but refrigeration will usually cause it to set up again. Once the jar is opened keep it refrigerated. After about six months of normal storage it will start turning dark, so I recommend use before then. -- Homer Terry

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