molly's marmalade

i love the bitter sour perfumed flavour of cumquat so i planted one in my new garden two years ago and last autumn i made my first cumquat jelly..i decided to make jelly because, even though i love the flavour of cumquat, i've never really liked the consistency of the cumquat marmalade i've made..unlike the more dense rind of other citrus the skin on cumquat is soft and so it's difficult to cut it into lovely thin batons..so i've tended to end up with an inconsistently lumpy marmalade that i haven't enjoyed very much..

i am a bit of an op shopper in case you hadn't realised and at the same time as i made my cumquat jelly i noticed jars of delicious looking cumquat marmalade in my local op shop..it turned out that it had been made by molly, a volunteer, whom i know and really like..she is 82 years old and walks to and from the op shop daily with the assistance of a walking frame because she has chronic leg pain..despite the pain, however, molly is always smiling and friendly..

molly

anyway i bought one of molly's jars of marmalade, even though i had my own jelly, and because it was so delicious i had to go back for another jar a few days later..she was chuffed when i told her how much i had enjoyed her marmalade because she hadn't considered herself much of a jam maker..it was then that is asked her how she made it and she offered to write the recipe out for me..i made a batch that afternoon and i can happily tell you that i considered it a success..the secret to it's success, i think, is that the fruit is minced..although i have to say i've never liked using this method with other citrus fruit..

      molly's cumquat marmalade

• 1 kg cumquats (weight after de-seeding)
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 kgs sugar
• juice 2 lemons

• first de-seed cumquats (this is rather slow and laborious) and tie the seeds in muslin (molly didn't do this)
• mince the cumquats (i used a food processor)
• put minced cumquats and muslin bag in a large pan, pour over water, and leave to soak overnight
• the next day boil until the fruit is soft (approximately 1/2 hour)
• remove muslin bag and add the sugar and lemon juice
• once the sugar is dissolved boil rapidly for approximately 1/2 hour or until set

my 'molly' marmalade  

it's a lovely vibrant orange colour

my thanks go to molly who kindly gave me permission to take her photograph and write her cumquat marmalade recipe in this post..