Description
Oranges and deeply coloured blueberries make for a fun and fruity marmalade that’s as delicious as it is beautiful. Spread on homemade blueberry muffins or hot raisin toast for breakfast or a snack. This one makes a lovely gift, but you’ll want to tuck away a few jars just for yourself.
Scale
Ingredients
- 3 lb (1.4 kg) navel oranges (any variety)
- 6 cups (1.5 L) water
- 2 cups (500 mL) blueberries
- 6 cups (1.5 L) sugar
Instructions
- Scrub the oranges under cool running water. Slice in half crosswise and juice thoroughly, pouring the juice into a large, heavy-bottomed pot and saving the seeds in a medium bowl. Using a metal spoon, scrape out the membranes from the orange halves and add to the seeds. Trim off the stem and blossom ends and add to the seeds. Slice the peels into very thin strips until you have 2 ½ cups (625 mL).
- Add the sliced peel and water to the pot. Place the saved seeds, membranes, stem and blossom ends and any remaining peel on a double-layer square of cheesecloth. Bring up the edges and tie with kitchen string to form a secure pouch. Nestle the pouch into the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the
- heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Scoop the pouch into a fine-mesh sieve and press on it with the back of a spoon to release the pectin-rich juices back into the pot. Discard the pouch. Stir in the blueberries and sugar. Bring to a full foamy boil over highest heat, stirring frequently. Maintain a boil, still stirring frequently, until it reaches the gel stage, which should take about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove from the heat.
- Be sure to fill your canner with water and place it over high heat at least 20 minutes before you need it so it will be boiling when the jars are ready to be processed.
- Ladle into 6 clean 250 mL (1 cup) jars, leaving a ¼ inch (5 mm) headspace.
- Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on the packaging for preparing lids for processing. Position new flat lids over the clean jar rims and secure in place by twisting on the screw bands just until fingertip tight. Not too tight—some air will need to escape during processing.
- Place jars in water bath canner, covered by at least 1-inch (2.5 cm) boiling water. Cover canner and process for 15 minutes. Start timing when water in canner returns to full boil. When the processing time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Leave the jars in the canner for 5 more minutes.
- Remove processed jars from the canner and leave to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten the screw bands while the jars are cooling. Once the jars are fully cooled, press the middle of each lid to check for a vacuum seal. If the centre of the lid is suctioned down, your jar has fully sealed.
- TIP Look for plump, firm blueberries with a silvery sheen on the skins. Remove any stems and discard berries with broken skins. Blueberries freeze well, so it can be worth it to buy a large box when they’re in season and freeze for making jams, jellies and marmalades another day.
Notes
From The Canning Kitchen by Amy Bronee. Copyright © Amy Bronee 2015. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Photography credit: Amy Bronee.