Jam Session 4: Reprise

Finally!

Over, finished, gone, done, out.

~Anthrax

For the finale of my marathon preserving jam-boree, I decided to take all the limes I no longer needed for banana jam (having engaged in a last-minute change of plans) to make lime marmalade. I decided to add Meyer lemons because, well, I had them and it seemed like a good idea. I applied all the lessons learned from my previous batches regarding jars, temperatures, and gel tests and turned out two and three-quarter pints of bitter deliciousness in record time. I was already familiar with marmalade production, being a dab hand at fridge-a-lade when need arises, but had never gone the whole way and vacuumed my citrus preserves before. It was almost too easy.

1. I sliced my scrubbed fruit into very, very thin slices until I had four cups' total, divided evenly between limes and lemons. This was actually the most laborious part of the entire process, and taxed my sharpest knife and (admittedly modest) skills to the limit:

2. I added 4 cups of water and let the whole thing sit overnight. Normally, I do not bother with such a long soak, but limes have notoriously tough epidermides (is that right?).

3. The next day, I plopped the lot into my big pan and bubbled it for about half an hour, until the skins were soft.

4. I added four cups of sugar, decided the mixture was still a bit too bitter, and added some more.

5. I cooked it for another twenty minutes or so. When it reached 221 deg F on my candy thermometer, experience told me that I was not quite at the jelling stage. The liquid was not syrupy enough and it was still at a fairly rapid boil. A gel test in the freezer confirmed my suspicions.

6. When the mixture reached about 224 deg F, it appeared as though I was onto something. Another dollop that went into the freezer came out all puckery under the pressure of my right index finger. Huzzah!

7. I turned off the heat under the pan and continued to stir my unmistakably marmalade-y substance until it cooled a wee bit: this helped the suspension of the peel and forestalled the sort of floating-fruit catastrophe I suffered with my pear and pineapple preserve.

8. I decanted the mixture into my never-fail Ball jars, processed them for ten minutes, and was unsurprised to discover a vacuum dimple on every single lid.

9. The marmalade was bitter and delicious, with tender peel and jelly of the correct soft (but not runny!) consistency. The whole production (not counting the hour it took me to slice the fruit the day before) was over by noon.

I'm going to need a new challenge soon.

Next up: I perfect my recipe for gluten-free banana cake by using high-ratio baking principles and decide to make butternut squash preserves.