My Current Obsession

Once upon a time there was a girl who was feeling like she needed to be a little creative.  She stumbled upon a new shop, thanks to her Mum, called Restaurant Depot.  This place is filled with wonderful cases upon cases of restaurant supplies, thus my obsession began.

It started rather innocently with a huge box of *juice oranges (Valencia).  Add to that 25 pounds of sugar that disappeared in a weeks time.  

Orange marmalade I love you.  Even if you took me three whole days.  Who knew that marmalade was a three day process?

Day one: slice your oranges thin. (I also used 4 lemons) Soak in water for 24 hours.

Day 2:  Cook the oranges.

Day 3: add sugar -only half of the total amount.  To figure half, first measure your fruit.  The amount of cups of fruit will equal your amount of total sugar used (I am going pectin free in this recipe). Stir occasionally, more as it gets to the boil (burnt jam is yucky!)

Bring to a rolling boil (that you can't stir out).  Boil 5 full minutes.  Add in remaining sugar, 2 tbs. lemon juice and a nice chunk of butter.  Stir, bring to a rolling boil again.  Boil hard for 10 minutes or until your desired firmness.  (you can freeze a saucer or two and drop a few spoons on it to check if it is thick enough yet.  Tip plate to see if it is Jammy enough for your liking).

Ladle into sterile jars (with sterile lids ready).  Wipe jar rims clean with a clean tea towel or paper towel.

Put on lid and ring, tighten to fingertip tightness (which means just tight, not too tight).  Add to a hot water bath (I put a tea towel on the bottom of my huge canning pot, so I can fit more jars in without jar breakage.

Process once boiling is reached for 10 minutes.  Lay out a clean towel for the jars to sit on for the next 24 hours.  Take jars out with a jar gripper, set on towel.  Right away many of the jars PING- or seal.  Leave for 24 hours to cool.  

Check for seal. If didn't seal, use right away.  Store sealed jars in a cool dark place until ready to eat.  

 

As you can see I used old Atlas Ball canning jars.  They say they are not safe to use, and recommend the lids with screw on rims instead. 

However, I am a girl with a vintage soul and when I saw these for $.10 a jar I was on those babies. 

I was counseled by an 80 year old woman who gladly shared 50 years of canning wisdom with me and told me that they are just perfectly safe!  I agree and have 40 new jars full of various jams to prove it.