Lime and Apple Marmalade

If one can get ones creatives juices running, and create a unique marmalade, could one say that the marmalade is art?  Limes have certainly inspired me to create a number of delicious marmalades as it has indeed inspired artists to paint them.

This morning on our toast, we tasted the Lime and Apple Marmalade I completed yesterday evening.  I used ripe yellow limes which explains the finished colour of the marmalade.  I have written a little more about ripe limes on my other blog: 

600g limes, washed and cut into quarters

450g tart cooking apples

1 litre water

1.3Kg granulated white sugar

The limes were first cooked at pressure for 10 minutes, then the washed and quartered apples which had only the stalk and flower part removed, was added, and cooked again at pressure for another 5 minutes, together with the limes which were being cooked a second time.

I left all of this in the pressure cooker overnight, and tackled the chopping of the peel and the sieving of everything else the next day.  Leaving the fruit steeping in the water further softens it.  

The sugar was then added to the preserving pan, into which the chopped peel and pulp and all the juices was transferred.  It is possible to use the pressure cooker base without the lid to boil up the preserve, but with the wider top, I felt for this quantity it was be easier to use the preserving pan.

It did not take long for the lot to reach 105 C, giving the lot a gentle stir from time to time just to check that the marmalade did not catch on the bottom of the pan.  I left it a little while, about fifteen off the heat, and the plate test was good, and then it was time to transfer the preserve to the washed jars which had been heating up in the oven to 70 C. 

I didn't make my usual batch of Seville Marmalade this January, as we had quite a few jars left, and I knew they would mean I could make a few different ones during this year.  This is the first of the different marmalade for 2025.

Green is the colour

Yes Green, one of my favourite colours, all types of green....

Picked up some lovely fresh bright green unwaxed limes from Waitrose.  I've not made any Seville Marmalade this year, but will just focus on others.  However in the cupboard I had only a part pack of Tate & Lyle left, so I rushed to the local small Tesco, but they only sell sugar beet sugar.  I've used that before but it just does not work.  A small store had some, so rather than traipse to a larger Tesco in Warwick or Leamington I bought a couple of bags.

I really love Lime Marmalade so soon there will a few pots in the cupboard.

Lime Marmalade revisited

If Mr M can wish for something we haven't got, then I can too, and with some tasty sour dough I felt that what would go best with this would be lime marmalade....and guess what, there was none left.  The very next day I bought a bag full, and with the juice of one lemon, made just a few jars.  This time, I scraped most of the white pith, before cutting the peel into shreds, and strained the juices off.  With less of the flesh in the preserve, it is more like a jelly: full of flavour, clear, but quite a bit less!  This morning I had my toast and lime marmalade, delicious!