Cumquat's are one of those strange fruits that you generally cannot buy commercially but they are in so many people's gardens, worth the effort if you can get your hands on some.
Ingredients
Around 600-800 grams fresh, washed Cumquats
Sugar (see instructions below for how much sugar)
Water
Jars
Method
The night before you plan on making the marmalade, you will need to prep the fruit
Remove pips and internal pith from cumquats, to do this cut the fruit in quarters and scrape out seeds and cut out any of the white pith in the centre of the fruit
Place the quarters fruit in one larger bowl and the pips and pith in a smaller bowl. When you have finished cutting up, place water in both bowls until the fruit and pip mix is just covered. Leave to sit overnight with a tea towel over the bowls, do not store in fridge.
When you are ready to make the marmalade, put a plate in the freezer and then in a small pot cook the pips and pith with the water for about 10 minutes, stir regularly and add a little water if required. This mix will be strained and the liquid/gel will be the natural setting agent.Using a food processor blitz the quartered fruit and water up, blitz to the consistency you like, some large chunks of fruit are good to have for a bit of texture.
Measure the fruit mix into the pot, you will need to note down how many cups of fruit pulp you have. Then take a sieve or some cheese cloth and squeeze out all the liquid/gel of the pips and pith into the fruit mix, discard the pips and pith.
Heat the fruit mix until it is bubbling gently, about 5 minutes, then add an equal amount of sugar (if you have 3 cups fruit pulp, add 3 cups suga
Gently cook the mix for 20 to 30 minutes maximum. You will need to stir regularly, a silicon spatular is a great way to scrape the mix off the bottom of the pot, but never leave the spatular in the pot.
At 20 minutes add a small dollop of the mix onto the plate from the freezer, if it forms a skin over the dollop then your mix is ready to jar up. If not cook a little longer, but it is important to not over cook.
Then pour into sterilised jars.
Then when you are ready, enjoy this delicious cumquat marmalade!
Notes
A quick internet search will helpyou sterilise jars, I tend to wash and rinse in really hot water and then bake on a tray in the oven.
In the picture, you will see I made a simple marmalade slice with lashings if this golden liquid
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