Orange Cranberry Marmalade
Whew, winter’s having a year. Flooding on the west coast, crippling ice storms, ugly drab in the upper Midwest (which I’ll take over the other two). I hear even Europe’s suffering. Would some Orange Cranberry Marmalade help?
Orange Cranberry Marmalade
I stumbled across a fun “event” a couple weeks ago. The blog, Food in Jars, is running a year-long canning challenge for readers who want to enhance their canning skills/repertoire. You can one specified item a month and share with other participants. Like canning with friends!
For the month of January, everyone is making marmalade and I decided on Orange Cranberry Marmalade. I’ve never made marmalade before!
Cranberry in Orange Marmalade
I have been canning for years, ever since one of my CSAs hosted a workshop. I do everything from hamburger dills (to use up the deluge of CSA cucumbers) to gourmet items like cherries in red wine. But in (relatively) barren winter, I am usually out of the game. I never cared for the in-season marmalade, with its bitter white pith. 
Through the challenge, however, I learned you could strip off the pith to produce something less bitter and more jam-like. I added some cranberries (leftover from the holidays) for a new twist and got marmalade that reminds me of a sweet sour candied orange peel—mmmm! Guess I don’t hate marmalade after all. 
If you are not a canner, but still want to try, you can always pour your marmalade into canning jars or Pyrex, refrigerate and use within a couple weeks. It would go that fast in our house! 
My directions below do assume that you are familiar with canning techniques. If you are a newbie and want to give it a try, there are many good reference sources such as the Ball guide or Food in Jars that can help you get started.
Orange Cranberry Marmalade – without the bitter!
- 3 medium oranges, unpeeled (approximately 16 ounces)
- 3 cup water
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup cranberry slices (cut into wagon wheels)
- Using a vegetable peeler (or zester), cut off just the orange portion of the peel in slices (If using a peeler, working in a back and forth slicing motion may make this easier.) Reserve the strips of orange peel. With a sharp knife, slice the remainder of the white pith off the orange (as if beginning to supreme the orange). Discard the white pith.
- Place the peeled oranges and the reserved colored peel into a saucepan topped with the 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and cook until everything is very tender, 30-40 minutes.
- Reserve 2 cups of cooking water. Slice the orange peel sections into thin juliennes. Break/cut up the cooked orange into a coarse mash. Place peel, mash, sugar and 2 cups of reserved water back into the saucepan.
- Bring to a boil and cook on medium until about 218 F. Add the cranberries and continue cooking until mixture reaches 220-222 F. As a secondary test (recommended), place a bit of the mixture on a cold plate and put it in freezer to test that it will gel.
- To can, pour into 3 clean, hot, half-pint jars (I like to heat jars in the hot canning water, then set in a rectangular cake pan in a 200 F oven to stay hot). Process in a boiling water bath, according to standard canning techniques, for 10 minutes.
- In a second batch, I tried to streamline these instructions by breaking up the oranges and peel right away, and adding sugar immediately. This version did not thicken properly (though it will go nicely into yogurt) and my reading indicates that adding sugar too soon can weaken the gel.
Oh this looks lovely! If I increased the cranberries to 1 1/2 cups and added another cup of sugar, so you think it would still be suitable for water bath canning, or would you recommend storing in the freezer?
Now I’m not a food scientist or master canner, so this is not a professional opinion. But I don’t see why there would be a food safety issue, since cranberries are so acidic. In terms of other properties like thickness, I can’t say what other impacts there might be–your amounts look almost like a cross between a marmalade and a jam. If you want to check out another cranberry orange recipe, here is a compote from Food in Jars https://foodinjars.com/recipe/cranberry-orange-compote/
Pingback: 4 Ingredient Orange Glazed Salmon - Art of Natural Living
Pingback: Hot Pepper Jelly. Plus (Surprise) Syrup. Oops. - Art of Natural Living
Pingback: Citrus Salad with Blue Cheese - Art of Natural Living
Your marmalade looks beautiful, and I can personally vouch for the cherries in red wine; they are delicious! The JIJ seems like fun – I love canning, so it will be fun following you and Cheri as this continues!
I expect Cheri was beautifully set up to undertake this challenge with the local citrus that you often feature seasonally. Glad you enjoyed the Cherries in Red Wine; it is one of my favorites!
A bit of your marmalade would brighten up any day…it sounds terrific.
Thanks Karen!
That turned out beautifully. I’m off to check out the canning website. That sounds like fun.
The projects are pretty varied and include different types of preservation including dehydration and salt-curing. Next month I am going to try gravalox. It would be fun if you could can along!
What a interesting combination Inger…cranberries and oranges…it sure looks delicious…I would love to dig a spoon into the jar just to have a taste of it.
Have a wonderful week ahead 🙂
I always wish I could share what I make with my online friends Juliana!
i thought about joining in on that but ultimately chickened out. i think your combination is dynamite!
Next month I’m doing gravalax (salt cured salmon), so it’s definitely pushing the envelope in a good way!