How To Make Lemon Marmalade Jam

Homemade Jam Recipes

Ingredients: Lemon Marmalade Jam Recipe

5 lemons
1 grapefruit
4 lb / 1,800 grams of white granulated sugar (approximately)
80 fl oz / 2,350 ml of tap water

Method - What To Do

Wash the five lemons and the single grapefruit, and peel the skin from the lemons. Using a sharp chopping knife, slice this peeled skin into extremely thin strips, discarding any of the white pith. Trim the sliced skin into smaller pieces (shreds) and add these to a pan, with just enough water to cover them. Put the lid on and allow them to simmer for around 20 minutes, so that the shredded lemon skin is soft to the touch.

Cut up the remaining peeled lemons into small pieces, as well as the flesh of the grapefruit. If you are in a hurry, you can simply blend them all in a food processor instead, or mince them. However, it is worth noting that if you mince the fruit in this way rather than chopping it by hand, your finished lemon marmalade is likely to end up cloudier as a result.

Add the fruit (and any pips) into a fresh pan and cover with the measured out water (roughly five pints). Bring the pan to a gentle boil and simmer away (without the saucepan lid) for one and a half hours (90 minutes). After this long simmering, the lemon should have fully softened and pulped. Strain the previously cooked lemon shreds and pour this 'extract' into the mixture, stirring it in and boiling for a few more minutes.

Strain the cooked lemons (and grapefruit) through a muslin jelly bag or a very fine sieve. Leave this mixture to drip freely without compressing it, so that only the juice is collected and no pulp. This is a lengthy process and is best left to carry on dripping overnight.

Once you have collected all of the strained liquid, return it to the pan and combine with the cooked lemon shreds. For every pint of this 'juice', add 1 lb of white sugar. Place the pan onto a low hob heat and gradually warm the mixture through, stirring and dissolving the sugar before your marmalade starts to boil. Bring the lemon marmalade to a strong boil and leave it to boil away for 15 minutes, stirring a little to prevent the syrup from catching in the pan.

By now, your marmalade should have easily reached its setting point and this can be tested by the usual jam making method, using a cold plate from a freezer. Spoon some of the lemon mixture onto this plate, leave for a minute and then pick up the plate, tilting it at a steep angle. If the marmalade runs, it is obviously not ready to set. As a final test, run a finger over the surface of the sample and if a skin is forming, shown by obvious ripples, you can be very confident that a good set will occur in the jars.

Cool the hot lemon marmalade for 15 minutes, so that it begins to start thickening, meaning that the lemon shreds will be less likely to float in the jars and will be more evenly distributed. Finally, mix well and pour the marmalade into sterile glass jars (boiled, oven-baked or sterilised in a hot dishwasher). Top with circles of waxed paper - place the wax side down, and then screw on the jam jar lids as tightly as you can.

Lemon Marmalade recipe - More Marmalade Recipes.