Anywho, the fruit of the month for January was citrus. I try to can local food, so I wasn't too thrilled about citrus. Then my bosses asked if i wanted 3 bags of lemons we had zested but had no use for the fruit. I snapped them up and when i got home hit the canning books. So here is my Free Lemon Jelly. This recipe is adapted from one in a book I own but now cannot find in order to tell you the title. Go figure. (I found it, it's "Making Jams and Preserves" by Diana Sutton. i modified the recipe by cutting back the water to ensure a really strong lemon flavour, and not soaking the lemons overnight. it seemed pointless and it was).
-Firstly weigh out your lemons and chop them roughly, seeds skin and all
-To every 3 pounds of lemons, add 2 liters of water
-Bring to a boil and boil for about an hour an a half until fruit is falling apart
-Most jelly recipes will tell you to strain using jelly bags. I add a second step, which ends up saving time
-First I extract the juice using a large colander. You can press as much as the pulp through as you'd like and it dosn't matter
-Then I do a final straining using my jelly bags. This way you don't waste all the space in your jelly bag with massive amounts of hot fruit, and the juice drips through in maybe half an hour, rather than 3.
-Next we make jelly! For every cup of juice you want to add 1 1/4cups of sugar. (or by weight 1lb 4oz of sugar to every pint of juice).
-Start with the juice and sugar on medium/low heat until the sugar dissolves
-Then bring it to a rolling boil until it reaches jelly stage. I find the spoon/plate trick painful and since making jelly, especially without pectin, have taken to using a thermometer. Jelly stage is reached at 220degrees.
-Ladle into hot sterilized jars, and process in a hot water bath. 5 minutes for half pints, 10 minutes for pints.
-Of 9 lbs of lemons and a ton of sugar I got a pretty good haul of jelly! I managed to scorch 2 jars but who knows, the super caramelized sugar might just be amazing...or awful.
-The finished product is sweet with a super sour finish and a beautiful honey colour. It's got super intense lemon flavour. It tastes almost like marmalade without the chunks. I had some on toast this morning and the pucker definitely woke me up, but it would be excellent in tarts, as a glaze on a fruit tart, in thumb print cookies, as a glaze for meat, anywhere that you want sweet, sour intense lemon flavour.
