Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Homemade Kumquat Marmalade

Last weekend I caught a homemaking bug and decided to make kumquat marmalade from the kumquats we gathered from the tree in our backyard. I had researched it a little bit a few months back, but was waiting for the kumquats to ripen. So, my mom and I trucked outside to pick the tree clean and I started googling how to slice kumquats...delicate work. because of the tininess :)

The entire process was...challenging. I tried to follow the recipe, but it definitely wasn't specific enough. I think it assumed that you already knew about how to make marmalade and didn't give enough beginner information. My pot boiled over multiple times, burning a syrupy mess onto different burners of my oven and causing me to go through almost every pot in my house. After burning my finger pretty badly, I was ready to just quit and through it all away. But I persevered :) Finally I deemed the mixture at the "gel stage" and put it into containers. I am keeping it in the fridge right now and although it looks good, it does get a little too hard in there. I'm not sure how to fix it since I am pretty sure I can't keep it in the pantry. Right now we are settling for just letting it sit out and soften a little bit before using.

Not too bad for a first try!

No comments: