I decided to go full-on grandma today, and did peach and lemon jam.
Marmalade is one of those foods where the difference between store bought and home made is the most striking.
It is completely night and day.
What you need for 6 pots:
2kg (approx 4.5 lbs) peaches
Three big non-treated lemons
1kg (2lbs) sugar
6 glass pots of 0.25l (8.8oz) capacity
6 new caps
Water
Time
An oven
A flame
A pot
A mixer (not mandatory)
For the side quest:
1l (1 quart) 190 proof alcohol
0.5kg (1 lb) fresh ginger
Clean the peaches and chop them up in small pieces
Add half the weight of the cleaned peaches in sugar and mix.
Set aside
Side quest intermission:
Clean the ginger, take away all the skin and chop in small pieces.
Peel the lemons, trying to peel away only the yellow part of the skin (as little white as possible)
Separate the 190 proof alcohol in two bottles.
Toss the cleaned ginger and the lemon skins in the bottles.
Store for 40 days in a dark place.
More on the side quest in 40 days.
Back to the jam
Cut the lemons in small pieces, REMOVE ALL PITS.
Toss into a cup with abundant water for a minimum of two hours.
Two hours later drain the lemons
And boil them for 10 minutes minimum in fresh water
Then drain them again
These steps are mandatory or the lemons will taste super bitter.
Now the peaches should look like this, as the sugar has taken out some of the water inside:
Throw everything into a pot:
Add a bit of water and start boiling on low heat.
Turn often to avoid sticking to the pot and burning.
After anywhere between one and two hours it will look like this:
Turn the flame off and let cool a bit.
Place the cleaned jars into the oven at 125C (that's 260F for you barbarians)
When the jam is not flaming hot, mix it to obtain this consistency and put the flame back on minimum for another half hour or so.
The marmalade is ready when it very slowly moves down a vertical ceramic plate.
Almost ready:
Ready:
Now prepare a cutting board with a few napkins/towels on top.
The idea is to have a surface that's not too hard, because 260F hot glass has a tendency to shatter easily.
Now take the jars out of the oven one by one and fill them like so:
For sanitary reasons you want to fill the jars one by one, taking them out with the oven still on, smoking hot.
This will help sterilization
Put the cap on (better if new, and just washed) and turn the jar upside down.
Repeat and win.
Once cooled down, the caps should not "click" as the hot should have created a vacuum that will help preservation.
Keep the extra jam that did not fit in the fridge, it's good for a few days