Finally, Marmalade Success

I am so much more a cook than I am a baker. Or a marmalade maker.

I rarely make the same recipe the same way more than once. That’s why my track record with baking yeast breads is about 50/50 and I’ve never made a successful marmalade… until this one!

Citrus season around here is like zucchini season in other climates. We came outside the other day to find two big bags of grapefruit on the front porch. I’m pretty sure they’re from our next door neighbor, but you never know. I decided to try marmalade again and found this excellent-sounding recipe for grapefruit marmalade with Campari liqueur. This time I would stick to the recipe. No changes, no substitutions, and see what happens.

And it worked! I followed the recipe exactly and it worked! I had to stir it for almost an hour because I was too afraid of scorching it to turn the heat up, but I finally did and the mixture finally gelled.  Five jars of this marmalade took me over three hours of work, another hour of cleanup, three pounds of organic sugar, and every bowl, pot, and spoon in the house. Never again will I bicker over the price of homemade jams.