Good cook: How to make marmalade!

Guess what I’m doing right now?
If you guessed “Eating bread with warm marmalade” you are absolutely right!
If you guessed something else, you are probably (depending on what you guessed) way less creepy!

I did it!

Granted, I did a couple of mistakes. This follow-the-recipe-thing is hard to get used to. I have to develop a technique for recognizing all the small things in the text, and not assume.
However, the taste is really good, just like normal marmalade!

I’ve written the recipe like I did it, not like the cookbook said, just because… this is how I did it. I will however point out what I did wrong. (I will however count this as a success since i TRIED to follow the recipe and didn't fail on purpose)

Marmalade of this and that:
(“inspired by” Andreas Viestad’s recipe in the book “Mine beste sider”)

1,5 kg mixed citrus fruits (I used one grapefruit, four oranges and several kumquats)
1,5 (or more) kg sugar
1,5 liter water
2 cloves
1 star anise
1/3 vanilla pod, sliced in halves.
3 teaspoons citric acid
Liquid or powdered pectin (if you want thicker jam)

First wash the fruit and peel of the zest (here’s my first mistake. You’re supposed to use the entire peel, I just used the zest. I don’t really mind though, because the jam got really delicate)
Cut the zest and the fruit meat in very thin pieces.

The white stuff between the peel and the fruit meat as well as the seeds (and in my case some of the peel) you put in a small kitchen towel or a cotton bag to be boiled together with the jam. This you will take out at a later time.

This takes a lot of time, but don’t lose your patience towards the end. Smaller is better!

Cover the fruit, the cotton bag and the zest with water and add the spices (here is mistake number two. You’re supposed to add the spice towards the end of the boiling, but I put it in from the start. The taste was still not very spicy, so I don’t think this is a bad idea)
Leave it to soak overnight.

The next day (I waited until I got home from work in the afternoon) put to boil on medium heat.
When it has boiled for an hour add the sugar and the citric acid, and let it boil for another 1,5 – 2 hours. If you turn up the heat you’ll get the dark kind of marmalade.

Add the pectin as explained on the box. I’ve got two types, one that’s added from the beginning, and one that’s stirred in towards the end, so check with the box. Take out the cotton bag with the seeds and squishy things, and squeeze out all the jam you can from it.
Extract the spices as well. (You can leave them in the jars for a stronger taste if you’d like)

Remember to use heated jars, and boil the lids right before you put the jam in. If you use normal jars (like those of pasta sauce) put them upside down until they’ve cooled down.

As you can see, I got enough for one really full big jar, one small jar (this is a present) and one half full will-soon-be-gone-jar.

Inspired by this I’ll try to do it right, and make another type of marmalade this weekend.

Velbekomme!