Grapefruit (marmalade)

So while I was meeting some new friends, I also met my first citrus tree. It was a grapefruit tree.


So...naturally we picked some grapefruit ('tis the season for grapefruit, apparently).


Now this all happened the week of Christmas...quite some time ago...what to do with with all of this rapidly-becoming-overripe grapefruit? Can it, of course...

We made grapefruit marmalade (I haven't opened it yet, but I tasted it before canning and it was quite tart...something that I would like on an english muffin, but not to everyone's taste.)

So, without further ado...here's what we did (amounts from the recipe are approx, as we doubled-ish):

Grapefruit Marmalade (adapted from the Ball recipe)
Yield: about 3 half-pints (We canned 8 jelly jars after doubling the recipe)

- 2/3 cup thinly sliced grapefruit peel
(the recipe claims that this is about one medium grapefruit..we didn't find any of the equivalencies to hold true for our grapefruit..it was more like 2 of ours)
- 1 and 1/3 cups chopped grapefruit pulp
(I poured the majority of the juice out and put it in the fridge)
- 1 quart water
- sugar

Here's our peel...ready to go

...and this is our pulp.
I tried to actually remove the membranes as well as I could...messy, juicy work!

Cover grapefruit peel with water; boil 10 minutes; drain. Add chopped (ha! chopped? Have you ever tried to chop the inside of a grapefruit?!) pulp and 1 quart water to drained peel; boil 10 minutes. Cover and let stand for 12 - 18 hours in a cool place. (Ours actually ended up 'sitting' for more like 20-24 hours....) Then cook rapidly until peel is tender (only took us another 5-10 min).

Here's the mixture...tenderizing the peel

Measure fruit and liquid -- add 1 cup sugar for each cup fruit mixture (we doubled the recipe, and I recall had about 6 and a half cups of mixture), stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly to prevent sticking (ours really didn't have a sticking problem--unlike most canned jams/jellies/butters we've made). Cook rapidly until almost to gelling point (I believe gelling point is 120 Fahrenheit--use a candy thermometer)


Skim foam if necessary (it wasn't...). Ladle hot marmalade into hot, sanitized, jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.


**I included more information in an earlier canning post about the process. These are by no means exhaustive or even all-inclusive instructions. If you're not familiar with canning, consult an expert or your local cooperative extension office for safety information.

If you're not comfortable with canning, you can always make a small batch and keep it in the fridge for a week or less (if it even lasts that long--yum).