Food in Jars Mastery Challenge - January = Marmalade

In early January I ran across a random post about a Food in Jars Mastery Challenge... by one of my favorite canning gurus..... and the event sang to me :-)   I enjoy canning... and the thought of a monthly canning adventure?  Well...  yeah... I'm in....

This month is marmalade.

My memories of marmalade are exactly two.....

     When I was a child, my sister used to make it and I hated it
                                            and
      Paddington the Bear loves it.   [children's literature is a FAVE hobby] 

Check out Paddington from Amazon here   [I do get a little kick-back when you click through here and purchase]

And in my own inimitable fashion...... I started on the internet.... gathering recipes and info.

First up, the Mastery Challenge site has plenty of instructions - which you should read carefully [and I did not :-)]   But I did start with their basic recipe for Small Batch Orange Marmalade....

   Mine is lovely.......

But it didn't set - so currently it is syrup :-)   I am sure there are things I can do with it but I'm not sure yet so I plan to do another batch of this later and add this syrup for a do over!  I don't use pectin in my jams so sometimes it takes a batch or two to get into the rhythm of having the right consistency.  

The second batch was a little better..... Orange-Ginger Marmalade.  Still not quite the right set... but a bit of scorch so I got it off the heat as soon as I realized!  Again, flavor is reasonable - not too burned :-) .... still learning...

I do have one jar of each open in the fridge for tasters!  I will have to make some fresh bread to enjoy this with :-)

Batch 3 fruit is being prepped now..... stay tuned!