Lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

Majorca lemon and a happy man

Beautiful lemons freshly picked from a friend's holiday home in Majorca, the type with thick skin, zero bitterness and not a lot of juice. Which means they are perfect for making marmalade and preserved lemon. 

Majorca lemon

This is the first time I make lemon marmalade, I like to have a tart result without using huge amount of sugar to make it set. The best solution is to add low methoxyl pectin, a natural type of pectin extracted from citrus peel, that sets the jam, not by having a lot of sugar, but the presence of a little calcium.

lemon marmalade

I added wine mulling spices because I found the taste of pure lemon marmalade reminded me of liquid dish wash fragrance, the spices help to enrich the flavor. 

lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

1. Cut lemons into quarters, remove seeds and central pith, slice thinly.

2. Add 50% its weight of brown sugar and a teaspoon of salt. I prefer brown sugar even though the resulting marmalade will be very brown, at least I have the benefit of minerals in the sugar. The salt brings out more flavor that helps to reduce the use of sugar. Mix well and rest for half an hour for the peels to soften.

3. Add enough water to produce the total amount of marmalade you wish to make. Soak overnight.

4. Bring to boil for a few minutes, add wine mulling spices in a bag, let it cool down slowly in the pan. If cut thin, lemon peels should be soft enough, if not repeat process.

5. Follow instruction for using methoxyl pectin, add calcium solution to the mixture, bring to boil.

6. Mix the required amount of methoxyl pectin with 100gm of brown sugar to disperse it, stir into boiling marmalade.

7. Season with sugar to your taste. 
8. Because of low level of sugar used, this marmalade have to be kept in the freezer for storage. Once opened to use, keep in the fridge and finish within a month.