Ingredients for Organic Grapefruit & Armagnac Marmalade:
- 3 lbs (1.35 kg) Organic Grapefruit
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 7 pints (4.2 litres) water
- 1 lb (450 g) sugar per 1 lb (450 g) pulp
Method for Organic Grapefruit & Armagnac Marmalade:
- Wash and dry the fruit. Cut in half and squeeze out the juice. Remove the pips, inside skin and pith. Tie these in a piece of muslin.
- Cut the peel finely or coarsely, according to preference.
- Put the peel in a large bowl with the bag of pips etc, the grapefruit juice and the juice from 2 lemons. Add 7 pints (4.2 litres) of water and leave to soak overnight.
- Weigh the preserving pan and make a note of it. Put the soaked peel, pith and pips into it with the water and juice.
- Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the peel is soft and the contents of the pan have been reduced to half its original bulk. This will take 1½ – 2 hours.
- Lift out the bag of pips and pith, squeezing it again the side of the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Test for pectin.
- Re-weigh the pan and subtract from this weight the original weight of the empty pan to calculate the weight of the remaining pulp.
- Add 1 lb (450 g) of warmed sugar to each 1 lb (450 g) of pulp, stir until all the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the marmalade sets when tested.
- Remove the scum and leave to cool slightly.
- Add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) Armagnac for each 1 lb (450 g) and stir.
- Pot and seal whilst still warm.
Notes: Any grapefruit can be used, I just came across vastly reduced nice pink organic grapefruit whilst shopping and thought what can I do with them!
I did have problems in extracting enough pectin which surprised me with citrus fruit and had to put in two sachets of “Silver Spoon” pectin (26 g) in order to get a good set.
Other alcohol flavourings than Armagnac go well with marmalades, particularly dark rum, brandy and whisky, but don’t use more than a tablespoon (15 ml) to each 1 lb (450 g) or it will drown the citrus taste. This made 10 lbs so I added 10 tablespoons (150 ml) in total.
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I have to disagree on your alcohol quantities. I made mixed peel marmalade which is absolutely superb. To some pots I added your prescribed amount of single malt whisky, to others armagnac and others I left plain.
The result was that although the marmalade is quite excellent, all the pots taste the same. I don’t notice any armagnac or whisky flavour. My advice is to double the quantities of the alchohol, and this is what I will do next year. After all, if you don’t want it to taste of whisky or armagnac then don’t put any in. If you do, put in enough.