Lemon Picking Day!

[Gerald]

I tried making marmalade last year for the first time. The first 2 batches were with Mandarins rinds. They came out fairly good. First batch was not too firm after it set up. Second batch I cooked it 2 or 3 degrees hotter and it came out too firm.

Then I made a batch with kumquats. That is a lot of work on such small fruit to take out the seeds and get them cut up. This batch got a little "brown" because I turn up the heat a little and maybe did not stir it enough.

I read a bunch of information and most indicated that the cooking time was not that long..... maybe 1 hour. My batches took about 2.5 hours but I make almost a gallon at a time.

Crappy.... to make the marmalade do you add your sugar when you first start cooking or do you cook the rinds some and then add sugar. How long do you cook a batch? Do you soak the cut up rinds over night?

To cut up the rind, I found that using the food processor with the slicing blade does a fairly good job of cutting up the rinds. There will be a few big pieces that I cut up some more.

I find the marmalade makes a great Old Fashion.
.