To continue from yesterday’s delicious Honey Roasted Quince recipe, here is a marmalade recipe that uses all the fruit trimmings that would usually be thrown away in the preparation process. ‘Because I’m just that nifty kinda gal. Jamming is a technique that isn’t something to be too afraid of either. It just needs a few tries and you’ll be a jamming expert in no time, but don’t worry, I’ll hold your hand through every little detail in my recipe. I am speaking from experience I guess, jamming was something that I had to teach myself and it took me a while to get the hang of it. Learn from my faults and triumphs, try this recipe!

Quince & Citrus Fruit Marmalade (makes one medium jar, or 2 small jars)

You will need:
the peel, core and seeds of 2 quinces
the peel and seeds of one grapefruit
the peel and seeds of one lemon
2 cups raw caster sugar
3 cups of water

Remove seeds and chop up your quince cores into smaller 1cm pieces. Wrap up the seeds from all of the fruit into a muslin cloth and tie with some kitchen twine to make a neat little pouch of seeds. Slice up your citrus peel into 1cm pieces. Put a small saucer into the freezer to test the jam later.

Sterilize a clean jar and it’s lid by pouring hot boiling water over it. The heat will dry the jar itself when you tip out the water.

Place all of the fruit and the seed pouch into a medium sized, heavy based saucepan. Turn the heat on to medium and cook your fruit until soft (about 2-3mins). I find this step to be helpful in making a nicely thickened jam. Add the sugar and stir well so that it dissolves. Add the water and bring to a boil. Keep the heat on high and watch constantly so that the syrupy mixture never boils over. Stir from time to time, making sure nothing sticks to the bottom. If you have a candy thermometer, fasten it to the side of your pot so that the tip is submerged half way down the pot. If you don’t have one, don’t sweat. Boil for about 15mins on high – you want the temperature to reach 105C. At this point the syrupy mixture should coat your spoon but won’t be so thick. Test your jam by placing a penny sized drop onto the cold saucer from the freezer. As it cools on the saucer, it should have a jammy consistency. If it is still liquid, then continue to boil on high and put your saucer back into the freezer for another test. Keep testing with this method every 2mins or so until you have the right jammy consistency.

Turn off the heat, take out the muslin cloth pouch with your spoon (be careful! it’s super hot!) and pour straight into the jar, or if you like your jam a little more pulpy, pour into a sieve over a bowl. If you are sieving, push the fruit through with a spoon until you are left with the larger chunky parts. Pour everything into the jar and seal with the lid. Turn the sealed jar upside down for 5 mins so that the heat can further sterilise the mouth of the jar, where microbes sometime like to hang out. Continue to cool the jam right-side-up until completely room temperature before storing in a cool, dark place. Once opened, the jam should always be stored in the fridge.