Strawberry Lemon Marmalade.
Are you kidding me? Sweet, tart, fruity, wonderful!
I don’t like super sweet jams and jellies. You’ll soon notice (if you haven’t already) that most of my fruit preserves include lime, lemon, spices or a tart berry. I just don’t like a jar of straight sugar. It needs to be cut with a little something savory or tart.
This is why Strawberry Lemon Marmalade is perfect. Strawberry jelly is a little sweet for my taste. Throw in some lemon and you have some tart to balance out the sweet. Perfect!
I ended up with 8 quarts of strawberries that were going to rot in my fridge if I didn’t come up with a solution. Datillos was having a great special last week:
- 1 Quart Strawberries
- 5 lbs potatoes
- 3 ears corn
- 3 lbs peaches
All for $5. Yes, that’s $5 total for all 4 items. If you have never met Datillos go here to see what I am talking about and why the produce is so fabulously affordable.
Since I really liked the special I bought 8. So I had 8 quarts of strawberries, 40 pounds of potatoes, 24 ears of corn and about 40 peaches. And I only spent $40. Boo-Yah!
Let’s make some preserves!
Wash, remove tops and chop the strawberries into little pieces. Put the strawberry pieces into a large sauce pan.
Next grate the peel off about 5 lemons. You want 1/4 – 1/2 Cup of grated peel. the more you can get in there the more “tart” your marmalade will be. If you want tang – go heavy on the peel. Transfer the grated peels into a sauce pan, cover with water and boil 5 minutes. Strain and toss into the sauce pan with the chopped strawberries.
For this recipe you can use the powdered pectin that comes in the little box. This stuff is persnickety. If you use it in the wrong jelly/jam/marmalade concoction you will end up with a disaster on your hands. Go here to learn how to avoid that disaster.
For Strawberry Lemon Marmalade the powdered stuff works just fine.
Add juice from 1 lemon, powdered pectin and bring to a simmer. Stir in sugar and bring back to a boil. Boil hard 1 minute. Then remove it from heat and skim off the foam. After the foam is gone you can ladle the hot marmalade into hot jars, adjust lids, and process 10 minutes in a boiling, hot-water bath.
For detailed instructions for the ladling, lids and bath process go here.
Strawberry Lemon Marmalade
- 1/4 – 1/2 Cup Thin sliced Lemon Peel (the more peel – the tarter your marmalade will be)
- 4 1/2 Cups Chopped Strawberries
- 1 package powdered pectin
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 6 Cups Sugar (I use cane juice crystals)
Wash and chop strawberries & place in sauce pan. Grate lemon peel. In small sauce pan, boil lemon peel in water 5 minutes. Combine lemon peel with strawberries. Add powdered pectin & lemon juice and bring to a simmer. Add sugar, stir. Bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head-space. Adjust lids. Process 10 minutes in boiling hot-water bath.
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XO,
Candi
