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Confession

This confession isn't super juicy, but it does involve juice.

I am OBSESSED with marmalade.

Not just the typical orange marmalade you find in the grocery store. I am obsessed with interesting homemade marmalades, bonus points if they're made with an atypical fruit base.

Last year I delved into jams and made some very satisfying batches of strawberry and pineapple jams, but marmalade is like a whole other tier of toast topping.

I'll blame my marmalade mania on all those cozy British mystery shows I love to watch on BritBox. It's almost impossible to watch an episode of any series that doesn't include a breakfast table scene complete with toast lined up neatly in a toast rack, ready to be slathered with the ubiquitous jar of marmalade.

I remember being intrigued by marmalade as a child, but somewhere along the way, it gave way to grape jam, strawberry preserves or honey butter. Never jelly though - the texture - eek!

MYOM (Make Your Own Marmalade)

My first attempt at homemade marmalade was earlier this year when blood oranges came into season. I just knew they'd provide the perfect flavor and vibrant color of my marmalade dreams. I wasn't wrong and although it turned out a bit thick, I knew I was onto something.

My latest marmalade attempt was to be of the Indian River Florida Pink Grapefruit variety. I found a bag just as the season ended, grabbed a bag of fresh local lemons, and brought them home to wash and store in the refrigerator until marmalade making day.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Due to cold, dry weather and extra handwashing (illness in the house), I developed a large eczema spot on my palm. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, except the skin was so thin, it split, leaving a gaping, painful wound.

There was no way I was going to be able to spend hours handling citrus fruit with that hand and although gloves were an option, doing anything with that hand was pretty painful. It took about two weeks and almost an entire bottle of liquid bandage, but I finally got it healed up and ready to marmalade!

Days One and Two

Day One of marmalade is deconstructing the fruit. First removing the top layer of peel with a veggie peeler and finely mince. Then separating the flesh of the fruit from the seeds and the pith. Seeds and pith go into a mesh bag and the flesh goes into the food processor until it's fairly small uniform pieces.

All of the above, plus some fresh water goes into a large pot for an overnight soak (that's the easy part). The next day, you bring the pot to a boil and let that whole concoction boil for 30 minutes. Next, you take out the mesh bag, squeeze any remaining goodness back into the pot and it's time to measure what you have left.

This is where I got a bit of a surprise. I expected to be making at least a double batch since I had a dozen grapefruit, but I never expected to have 27 cups of fruit mixture after the boil. This may not sound like a big deal, but the next step is to add sugar to the pot, cup for cup to match the fruit mixture.

27 cups of sugar??!! That number sounded absolutely outrageous, and I was fairly sure I didn't have that much sugar. I tried to look up how many cups of sugar was in a 10lb bag, and it was listed in teaspoons. Seriously sugar manufacturers - we need a bit more help than that.

After performing several calculations that revived trauma from 7th grade home economics class, I deduced a 10lb bag of sugar contained about 24 cups and that was close enough. It was already late in the day at this point, and I wasn't going to go out just for a 10lb bag of sugar, so the pot would sit and matriculate one more day.

Day Three

The next day dawned bright and clear, I had a very productive morning, then ran into Sam's for the planned bag of sugar (plus some unplanned sports bras and granola). Home again, home again, jiggity jog and I was in the homestretch of this marmalade marathon.

I unceremoniously dumped the entire bag of sugar into the pot, cranked the burner to high and waited for the pot to boil. It took 45 minutes! I know, I know, I was watching it, but I was afraid that damn sugar would burn the bottom of the pan otherwise!

The pot finally boiled at 4pm and for the next hour, my life stopped as I stirred continuously. I stirred so long that my right hand fell asleep. I decided to stir for 2 minutes with my left hand, but the left side of my body is basically useless and just along for the ride, so that didn't last long.

Set, Point, Marmalade

The second half hour of marmalade boiling is a game of cat and mouse. I am the cat, and the mouse is a tiny spoonful of the would-be marmalade mixture on a plate that is kept in the freezer until the appointed time. Plop of mixture on cold plate, pop it back in the freezer for 2 minutes, take out, and push the edge of the mixture with your finger.

If it's at the perfect set point, it should have a little give and wrinkle up a bit when pushed. I learned my lessons from the too thick blood orange marmalade and trusted my gut on the consistency. At 5pm I declared the boiling stage complete, turned off the burner and left the pot to cool. This took about 3 hours as it was such a huge pot.

The final step was to ladle the marmalade into mason jars. This can be quite a messy process even when you have the perfect wide mouth funnels. I was able to keep the mess to a minimum, but in the filling process, basically went through almost every empty mason jar I had!

7 QUARTS of marmalade later...

Another couple of hours of cooling in the jars, then one jar went into the fridge for immediate use, while the rest went into our garage freezer for gifts and future use. Now the only thing left was the overnight wait for complete cooling to see the final result.

The Verdict

I don't normally eat breakfast until 9am, but you know I couldn't resist getting into the refrigerator the next morning, opening that jar and sticking a spoon in to get a first impression. The consistency was PERFECT, and the taste was heavenly. My only issue now was the need to go out and buy more mason jars, but that's a problem I was willing to have.

Later that morning as I sat down to my breakfast of scrambled eggs and toasted Danish rugbrød slathered in pink grapefruit marmalade, I marveled at the amount of time that had elapsed since I bought that bag of grapefruit at the farmer's market. At least 3 weeks and then another 3 days of actual work to bring this sweet jar of delight to jarred fruition.

At any point along this process, I could have stopped. And to be honest, there are many times in years past I WOULD have stopped and been OK with that decision. But lately, I'm learning to trust the process, to see what happens next, to not plan too many steps ahead of where I am now. Curiosity is winning out over control lately and it's a beautiful process to behold.

How about You?

What are you NOT beginning because you can't see the ending?

Are you stopping yourself from taking the first step down a new path because you don't know where it might lead?

Or maybe you quit as soon as you encounter the first bit of resistance, too impatient to wait a bit, then begin again.

Life is an adventure, and the most exciting adventures include unforeseen detours along the way.

The best stories don't happen when everything goes exactly as expected. The best stories happen when life is imperfectly perfect.

In the pursuit,

Betsy

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