Plum Lemon Marmalade

This recipe was inspired by fruit on hand and a cologne I purchased in Italy. It was a lemon and vanilla scent and I immediately liked it. The vanilla softens the acidic element in citrus on your palate.

Ingredients:

3 large lemons
5C dark skinned plums with gold flesh
6C sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/2 pkg Sure jell Pectin *

Directions:

First thing to do is score the lemons into quarters and peel off the skins, then boil them for 30 minutes until soft. Next you must scrape off the pith and then slice as thin as you prefer the peel in your marmalade (I prefer mine as thin as possible. While the skins are boiling you can segment the fruit pulp and peel off the pith and membranes, then pull apart the segments into small pieces and place in a measuring cup. You should end up with 2 cups of lemon peels and pulp for the marmalade.

Roughly shop the plums until you have five cups of the fruit. Place both fruits into a nonreactive saucepan (I used a 4 quart pan for this batch) and mix together, then add the sugar and stir over medium high heat.

Now split your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pot. Add the bean too, then stir and bring to a rolling boil. Cook down by 1/5 and add pectin. Stir for another minute while it boils then use normal canning procedures to prepare and fill your jars (see Canning Made Simple in this blog).

*Notes on Pectin:

I find that I rarely need pectin with marmalade because the pith on the rind has so much natural pectin in it. Since I scrapped off most of the pith, I decided to use half a box of pectin in this recipe, and it turned out quite firm. If you like a softer jell do not use the pectin in this recipe.