Lime Marmalade

This is wicked good marmalade, but I'll warn you, it has a bitter bite. If you think Seville oranges are bitter, this stuff will blow you away. There's sweetness too (I ended up using eight cups of sugar to eight cups cooked limes) but it is really assertive.

I had some leftover, but not enough to can, so I'm going to try making a coconut/chicken curry with it as a base.

The recipe makes about 7 half pint jars. I had a little extra, but couldn't stretch it to eight. Because you measure the fruit after cooking, you'll probably come up with slightly different amounts depending on how much pith and pulp the limes had. That's OK. Just measure 1 to 1. For every cup of cooked limes, use an equal amount of sugar.

I used food colouring because the limes were an unattractive colour after cooking (like yellow Chartreuse). two drops of green food colouring and seven drops of yellow ought to do it.

Adapted From Kerr Kitchen Cookbook, Copyright 1990.

You Will Need:


4 cups very thinly sliced limes (paper thin) halved and seeds removed(about 8-10 limes)
7 1/4 cups water
7-8 cups sugar
2 drops green food colouring
7 drops yellow food colouring

Wash and scrub the limes very well. Slice as thin as possible and place in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook uncovered for forty-five minutes to an hour or until peels are very soft. measure the cooked fruit and liquid. Return it to the pot and add an equal amount of sugar and the food colouring if desired. Bring to a boil and cook rapidly almost to the jelling stage (on a thermometer 220 degrees F.) . You don't want to overcook marmalade or you'll be bending spoons trying to pry it out of the jar (voice of experience speaking).

Skim off foam (there will be quite a bit as citrus really tosses off foam). Immediately fill hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe tops and threads clean and seal. process in a boiling water canner ten minutes*

8The original recipe suggested five but current guidelines suggest ten. As the book was published in 1990, I decided to err on the side of caution and go with current standards.

Cool five minutes in canner before removing. let stand 12-24 hours before checking for seals

Pucker Up! (Oooh, that's tart!)

Next Up-Nectarine Chutney