Traditional Long Boil Marmalade

The recipe comes from Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving

Quote from the book:

Traditional Marmalades

Due to their extended cooking times, traditional marmalades have a slightly caramelized flavor that spells perfection to marmalade aficionados. Before making one of these long-boil marmalades, review the gel state tests …

Gel State Tests: When not using something like pectin to make a spread you need to make sure your mix has reached “gel state”.

The easiest and best way to do this is with a candy thermometer.

Orange Chilli Marmalade:

2 1/4 pounds of oranges thinly sliced (I used mandarine which creates more peels, a bigger orange might have less peels, depends what you like)

6 cups of water

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

3 dried chilli pepers (they recommend habanero or New Mexico chili)

9 cups granulated sugar

1. In a stock pot combine oranges, zest, water, juice.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat stirring frequently
3. Add peppers
4. Reduce to a gentle boil, partially covered, for 40 minutes stirring occasionally until fruit is soft
5. remove and discard peppers
6. Bring mixture back to a full boil stirring constantly
7. Gradually stir in sugar
8. Wait until mixture reaches gel stage (about 15 minutes)
9. Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/4″ headspace
10. Process jars in boiling water for 10 minutes