I've just been given a big bag of grapefruit, and have started turning them into marmalade. My previous attempts at marmalade were using fruit from the tree at our old house, which was such a sweet grapefruit that I could never achieve setting, as I was reluctant to add too much sugar.
However, my first batch with this more bitter fruit still hasn't set (it did pass a "cold plate" setting test).
- I have used small batches (1.5kg fruit)
- I boiled the pips in a muslin bag to get extra pectin
- I used cup-for-cup sugar on my reduced pulp.
The only thing I can think of is that I reduced the starting mix by 60%+ then based the sugar on that. Might I need to do it as "50% of what I started with"? I'd rather not have to resort to jam setting sugar - too expensive!
It does taste great, and I don't mind runny marmalade, but I know that it doesn't keep as well.
Replies
I just made some from our grapefruit, the recipe had 1tsp either tartaric or citric acid added with the sugar, as Megan said lemon juice would suffice probably
hello Richard, if you have a pressure cooker, you can cook the prepared grapefruit with an equal volume of liquid to weight of fruit ie 1.5 litres water to 1.5kg grapefruit, time for ten minutes from full pressure. Remove your bag of pips and bring to boil in an open pan with 1.5kg sugar. When the sugar has dissolved, hard boil for 15 mins and you should have a perfect set. Take the marmalade off the heat and drip some from your wooden spoon - it should roll off the back of the spoon in flakes and hang from the edge of the spoon. If it doesn't suspend off the edge of the spoon, give it another couple of minutes. With sweeter grapefruit, try adding the juice of a couple of lemons to help the setting. If you are using the open pan method to make your marmalade, you may have used too much water and not reduced it enough. I prefer the pressure cooker because it takes the guesswork out of how long and how much I need to reduce the liquid before adding the sugar. Keep us posted on how your next batch turns out:) Just made my first lot of seville orange marmalade for this year.
My Mum says (because I don't' really have the experience) Pectin is the key to setting
1. the grapefruit from early in the season, i.e. early September, have way more natural pectin - so will set more easily.
2. late season you can add pectin, which is available in some supermarkets, in simple paper packages. You may have to ask for it.
Clare
Hi Megan, no pressure cooker, but we are looking for one. I was using open pan on the coal range (cosied up to the corned beef), and started with a lot more water than that. My preserves book has no recipe for grapefruit(!) so i was using a Seville orange one.
The fruit needs to be boiled to soften the peel and release the pectin which is mostly in the pith and pips. The ratio of water to fruit in most open pan recipes is highly variable as is the timing for boiling and depending on whether you are using a proper preserving pan the amount of evaporation will make a huge difference. Ideally, the liquid will be slightly viscous when it's been boiled long enough. The 1.5kg of fruit is the maximum weight per batch that I cook too - any more can make it more difficult to reach setting point. So long as you have put your hot marmalade into clean sterilised jars, ideally with a screw top, they should store fine until you open them. Just keep in the fridge once you've opened the jar. I reduce the sugar down to between 30-60% of the weight of fruit for apricot; strawberrry & plum jams and they keep over a year unopened but must be eaten promptly once opened - dirty spoons or knives are a no-no, guaranteed mould:(