Meyer Lemons are productive and delicious. Sometimes they are so productive that it is a race to use them all. In addition to using them in cooking and freezing the juice in ice trays for later use, marmalade is a great way to preserve them. Marmalades can be used on toast and biscuits, but it can also be used in baked goods and served with soft cheeses. One of our family members puts a couple of spoons of it in his favorite Greek yogurt. This marmalade is so simple that even a beginning canner can turn out a successful first batch.
This recipe is ONLY for Meyer Lemons; don’t substitute your other varieties. This marmalade is a tender, loose marmalade with lots of jelly (from the juice and flesh) and bits of slightly chewy, candied rind. Unlike most marmalade recipes, you will be using the whole lemon. You do not have to zest it or remove the flesh, pith, or membrane. Do not double this recipe – it will fail. Just make several batches. If you have a smaller amount of lemons, you can make a batch that is 4 cups of each ingredient instead of 6.
Ingredients
6 cups prepared Meyer Lemons
6 cups water
6 cups pure cane sugar
Preparation
- Wash and drain 8 – 10 half pint canning jars, seals & rings. It is hard to predict exactly how many you will fill with each batch, so have extras washed and available.
- Scrub 10 – 15 lemons with a vegetable brush. Put them in a pot and add enough water to cover them (they will float, so this just means enough to cover them if they didn’t float). Add 1/2 cup vinegar. Soak for at least 30 minutes, swishing them in the water occasionally. Rinse well and drain. (Our lemons are organically home grown. This wash is just to remove air borne or environmental pollutants. Most market citrus is coated with wax and may have been sprayed with chemicals. If you buy market lemons, you will have to do extra cleaning steps).
- Set a cutting board on your counter with an inch or so hanging into your sink. Place a small glass or stainless steel bowl in the sink right under the edge of the cutting board. This will catch the juices draining from the board. If necessary, you can roll a dish towel up into a thin roll and elevate the opposite end of the cutting board slightly. I just scrape the juice into the little bowl as I go.
- Set a 4.1/2 to 6 quart pot close by. This pot must be stainless steel or a ceramic coated pot. Aluminum or cast iron will react with the lemons. Measuring cups should also be glass or stainless steel.
- Put (2) small salad plates in the freezer – you will use these to test for set later.
Preparing the lemons
- Slice 1/4″ off the stem end of the lemon, discard this piece because it has them stem stub.
- Stand the lemon on the cut end, slice downward, cutting the lemon in half lengthwise.
- Cut each half into 4 – 5 wedges (like you would to serve for ice tea or fish). The wide end (skin side) of the wedge should be no more than 1/4″ – 3/8″ wide; if your lemons are extra large, cut more wedges, smaller lemons cut fewer.
- Lay a wedge on its side, slice the center sliver of membrane off and remove any seeds. Do not discard these! Slide them into the glass bowl you have in the sink under your cutting board. You need to reserve all center membrane and seeds. As you work, you will occasionally see a piece of membrane at the edge of a wedge, just pull it loose and toss it into your seed-membrane bowl, but do not work to remove all membranes. They won’t hurt a thing in the finished marmalade. Just pull the obvious ones that get in your way.
- Slice the seeded wedge crosswise into little squares – there will be 6 – 7 little pieces per wedge. (Also see notes below). Toss into a measuring cup as you go. Repeat until you have 6 cups of prepared lemon pieces.
- Place prepared lemon pieces in the pot. Add 6 cups of water.
Pectin Bag
The seeds and membranes you have tossed into the glass bowl will provide all of the pectin your marmalade needs to set. Prepare a double or triple thickness of cheesecloth that is at least 8″ square. Pour the contents of your seed-membrane bowl into the cheesecloth, allowing the juice to strain through into the pot with your prepared lemon pieces. I lay the cheesecloth into a handheld cup strainer to do this. Tie the cheesecloth into a tight bag using either kitchen twine or the ends of the cheesecloth (you don’t want it to come loose). Sink the bag into the middle of the pot of prepared lemons and water.
First Cooking
- Bring the lemon-water-pectin bag combination to a full boil. Boil uncovered for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the lemon pieces are soft ( I taste one to make sure it is not chewy). Stir occasionally to make sure they are not sticking, but I have never had them stick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Once the contents are cool enough for you to handle the pectin bag comfortably, lift the bag out and squeeze as much of the pectin as you can out of the bag into the pot. Don’t open the bag. This will be thick, sticky and creamy – like sour cream or lemon curd. Scrape all you can into the pot; off the bag, off your fingers. Discard the pectin bag.
Get the jars ready
While your batch is cooling, you can get your jars ready. Fill each jar with water and place the jars in a pot that will allow them to be covered with water. While you are doing the Second Cooking, bring the jars to a boil then turn the heat off and leave them in the hot water. Just before you start checking for set, drop the lids and seals into the hot water as well.
Second Cooking
- Add 6 cups of pure cane sugar. Stir until blended. Put a candy thermometer in the pot making sure that it is well into the mixture, but not touching the bottom of the pot.
- Bring mixture to a boil. Keep the heat at a level where the mixture is always boiling, but not boiling over. (I use a 4.1/2 quart pot, and it boils to the top, but not over.) It will take 25 – 30 minutes to get to gel temperature. Stir often to prevent sticking. Don’t leave this unattended.
- When the thermometer gets just over 215°F begin testing for set.
Checking for Set (Gel) – there are three ways to approach this:
The Thermometer – Some canners use a candy thermometer – most jellies will set at 8°F over boiling. Since we are at sea level, where boiling is at 212°F, this means 220°F for us. However, I find this makes a slightly “tough” jelly. Commercial jellies are ALL tough as nails. The jellies our grandmothers made were tender. Tenderness was a sign of good jelly making. But if you are not comfortable with the other tests, you could just take your marmalade to 220°F and call it done.
The Spoon Test – Jelly makers who are familiar with this swear by it. Dip the side of a cool metal spoon into the boiling jelly. As you lift the spoon out, watch the jelly as it drips of the edge of the spoon. If it is very watery and drips off in a single stream of drops, the jelly is not set yet. If it is thickening and starts to form two drops, it is getting close. When the two drops run together and drop off together in a “sheet”, it is set. I am getting better at seeing it, but I still use the plate test as a back-up.
Plate Test – Take one of the chilled plates out of the freezer. Pour a small pool of the boiling mix onto the plate. Allow it too cool for a minute or more. Push your finger into the pool as if you were trying to plow a channel through it. If it is very liquid, it is not set. If it wrinkles as you push it, even a little, it is set.
Canning the Marmalade
As soon as you have decided the marmalade is ready using one or more of the methods above, turn the heat off. Remove the warm jars from the hot water and drain them well. There is no need to dry them with a towel. Ladle the marmalade into the warm jars, leaving 1/2″ of head space. If you have any excess marmalade left over after filling your jars, just pour it into a shallow glass or extra jar to use the next morning. Don’t worry about sealing it up.
Clean the rims of the filled jars, including the very edge of the rim. If there is any marmalade dripped there during filling, the jar may not seal. I use a canning funnel, but I still clean the rims before I seal them. I use a damp paper towel and just run it around the rim and threads of each jar.
Remove the hot seals from the water one at a time and place on the jars. Seal with the rings. Tighten hand tight only, don’t use a jar wrench. Use a hot pad or dish towel to do this since the jars will be really hot. There is no need to water bath the jars. You will hear the lids pop as the marmalade cools and the vacuum seals.
Notes:
The above method for preparing the lemons is fast and easy and makes a perfectly fine marmalade. However, a more elegant looking marmalade can be made by slicing the lemons into long slivers instead of cutting them into small pieces. Instead of cutting the lemon into many wedges and then slicing the wedges into pieces, do the following:
- Slice 1/4″ off the stem end of the lemon, discard this piece because it has the stem stub.
- Stand the lemon on the cut end, slice downward, cutting the lemon in half lengthwise.
- Cut each half lengthwise again, resulting in four lengthwise quarters.
- Cut the center membrane off of each quarter and toss the membrane into the seed-membrane bowl.
- Slice each quarter crosswise into thin strips, seeding as you go. Drop the seeds into the seed-membrane bowl. If any loose pieces of membrane get in your way, just pull them and toss them into the bowl as you go. Do not work to remove all membrane. Working with a SHARP knife will give you many little “shoestring” slivers. After you have cut 6 cups of slivers, continue to recipe from #6 above.