ORANGE MARMALADE

Steps:

• Equipment you will need: 1 Large plastic bowl with lid; 1 Large nonreactive Dutch oven; 1 Water-bath processor or very large stock pot with a rack to keep jars off bottom of pot; 1 Pair jar-lifting tongs (optional, but very handy); 1 Magnetic lid lifter (optional, but very handy); 14-15 Half-pint or 7 1-pint canning jars with threaded rings and new lids.
• Cut the zest (the thin orange portion of the peel) from all of the oranges using a vegetable peeler or sharp paring knife (about 1/16" thick or less and about 3/4" wide).
• Cut the zest into thin strips about 1/16" wide, and set aside.
• Using a micro-plane or regular grater, grate the zest from the lemons, and add to the orange zest.
• Peel the oranges and lemons with a sharp knife, removing most of the thin outer membrane from the fruit, as well as the white portion of the peel.
• Cut the flesh of the lemons and oranges into 1/4" thick slices, remove seeds as necessary, chop into 1/4" pieces, saving as much juice as possible, and place in a large plastic bowl.
• If desired, mash the fruit just a little bit using a potato masher, but you want it to stay fairly chunky.
• In a medium saucepan, combine the 1 cup water, white wine, lemon juice, and sugar over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved.
• Add the orange and lemon zest, and stir to combine.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a good simmer, and cook until zest strips are fairly tender.
• Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.
• Add zest mixture and 5 cups of water to fruit, stir to combine, cover tightly, and refrigerate or set in a cool place for 24 hours or a little longer.
• This aging is mandatory for flavor development.
• Before starting to actually make the marmalade, assemble all necessary equipment.
• Fill a water bath or very large stock pot with enough hot water to cover jars by at least 1-2".
• Jars can be stacked, if necessary, while processing.
• It will probably take longer to heat the water than to prepare the marmalade, so give it a good head start.
• Sterilize canning jars by running them through a full hot-cycle of the dishwasher, or wash in hot, soapy water, rinse well, and drain.
• In either case, transfer the jars to a 250 degee F oven until ready to fill them.
• Place new canning lids in a small saucepan of boiling water until needed.
• You should have between 9 and 10 pounds (18-20 pints) of fruit and zest mixture at this point, but this will reduce down to 7+ pounds (14-15 pints) during cooking.
• Transfer fruit and zest mixture to a large, nonreactive Dutch oven over high heat, and bring to a full boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan regularly to prevent scorching.
• Taste, and adjust tartness to taste using sour salt or lime juice (sour salt, 1 Tsp at a time, is easiest), and adjust sweetness to taste with additional sugar.
• Continue to boil, stirring and scraping bottom regularly to prevent scorching, until mixture reaches a temperature of 220 degrees F on a instant-reading or candy thermometer (actually, 8 degrees F above the boiling point of water at your elevation).
• Stir in the'no-sugar required pectin', and continue to boil for 1 minute longer, remove from heat, and allow to set for 2-3 minutes; setting helps solids to stay in suspension instead of sinking to the bottom of the jars.
• Stir marmalade well, and ladle into sterilized canning jars to within 1/8" of the rim.
• Clean the rim and threads of each jar with a dampened paper towel, top with sterilized new lids, screw on threaded rings, and tighten hand-tight.
• Immediately transfer to a water bath with enough boiling water to cover jars by at least 1-2".
• Process for 10 minutes, starting timing when water returns to a boil.
• Remove jars from water bath, invert onto a kitchen towel, and allow to set without disturbing until cooled completely.
• Turn jars over, and press down on each lid.
• If it does not pop up and down with pressure, the jar is sealed and can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
• Jars with lids that do pop up and down have not sealed properly and should be refrigerated and used first.
• Makes about 14-15 half-pint or 7 1-pint jars, with a little extra for the fridge.