Tips for top marmalade

Well it has been awhile. Life on the lifestyle block is a busy one.
The hardest thing about homemade marmalades, jams and jellies can be getting the setting right, without adding pectin - which seems like cheating. 

There are many marmalade recipes around. The one I made is a three fruits one using grapefruit, lemons and tangelos from our property.

I used a recipe from a Cordon Bleu cook book. I think these three tips made a difference to the set and the distribution of rind bits throughout the marmalade.

Note - this marmalade is a darker colour because I was running low on white sugar so used brown sugar as well. If you wanted to make a darker marmalade, substituting all the white sugar for brown would do that.

Top tips

1. Slice the fruit thinly, keep the pips aside. Put all the fruit in a bowl, cover with water. 

2. Tie up all the pips in some muslin/cloth and also add the parcel to the water. Leave overnight. Squeeze out the muslin with the pips in it. Quite a thick liquid comes out, which according to Cordon Bleu is the pectin. Tip the water and fruit into the saucepan before the making of your marmalade.

3. After you have boiled the fruit until soft, added the sugar (usually cup for cup of fruit) boiled it some more and got it to setting temperature (105C). Remove from heat and let cool for a bit. This seems to help the distribution of the rind throughout the jar.