Kumquat Marmalade

Lydia Plunk

At the same time you start to prepare the fruit, sterilize enough jars to pour 8 cups of the finished product into. It’s easy: just pop the jars and new 2 part lids through a dishwasher cycle. The jars will still be hot when the marmalade is ready to be ladled in, a safety precaution.   

2 cups chopped kumquats

Wash fruit. Cut in quarters, removing seeds. Rough chop until you have enough. Set aside.
2 oranges
Wash. Grate the zest. Remove the pith from fruit and chunk up the segments. Add oranges and zest in to the kumquats.
1 cup orange juice
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 pkg. Certo® Liquid Fruit Pectin
In a large pot (6 quarts or so) stir in the fruit mixture, juice, sugar and Certo®. Over medium heat, stir until the mixture comes to a boil that cannot be stirred down.
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/8 tsp baking soda

Lower the heat. Stir in butter and baking soda. Simmer for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle into sterilized jars up to level with or slightly above with the bottom of the thread marks on the jars. Wipe the rims and threads with a clean damp cloth or paper towel, so that any drippings will not prevent a tight seal.

Fill a deep pot with water to sterilize the marmalade jars in. The water will need to be boiling and deep enough to cover the jars plus an inch or so. Hand-tighten lids on each jar. Gently lower the jars into this hot bath. Allow the jars to simmer for 10 minutes.
The jars at this point will be very fragile. Lift carefully and place on the counter where cold drafts won’t break jars as they cool overnight. You will hear little popping noises as the lids pull down.

Here are the warnings that while product failure is rare, you need to be aware of a few safety failure warnings. Any lid when touched after it has cooled that does not suck down tight, needs to go in the refrigerator straight away- do not store at room temperature. If a lid on a jar shows any protruding bulge before the seal is broken, toss the whole thing in the trash.

In 25 years of jam making, I have only had to refrigerate a couple of jars right away and only had to toss one.

Once you take a look at the story- send over your suggestions and if you like I can send a clean document for you to work with.