Last Christmas I chose orange and green as my decorating palette with clementines (a.k.a Cuties) playing a central role. Consequentially I had scads of them after the holiday. So what do you do with an over abundance of sweet citrus? Make marmalade of course.

Ingredients

  • 24 seedless clementines
  • 4 lemons
  • 10 cups sugar
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 small packages fruit pectin plus hot water listed on package

Equipment

  • 8 to 9 pint sized, sterile canning jars

Instructions

  1. Cut clementines and lemons into quarters removing the navel end. Be sure to remove the seeds from the lemons. Leave the skins on.
  2. Using a food processor, chop the clementines and lemons fairly thin. Your food processor may not hold all of the citrus at one time; if so do this in batches.
  3. Place the chopped citrus in a large pot. Add ten cups of sugar and four cups of water to the citrus and mix well. Over a medium heat, cook the mixture for forty minutes stirring often to prevent burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan.
  4. When the cooking time is close to an end, mix together 2 packages of fruit pectin in a bowl following the manufacturers instructions.
  5. Stir the prepared pectin into the marmalade and let boil for one minute.
  6. Ladle into warm jars while hot, cover and process in a hot water bath.
  7. Makes 8-9 pints.