Easy Lime Marmalade

Lime marmalade
Vicki Vale / FOAP / Getty Images
Prep: 25 mins
Cook: 2 hrs 30 mins
Soak : 8 hrs
Total: 10 hrs 55 mins
Servings: 300 servings
Yield: 10 pints

Juicy Persian limes and their beautiful tang are the stars of this easy marmalade. With the perfect amount of sugar and a great zing, this marmalade is a great way of putting a bounty of limes from your garden during the spring and summer months to good use. The limes, sugar, and water alone make a wonderful preparation that you can use now, save for later, or give to family and friends. The process is pretty straightforward but requires at least 8 hours of soaking. We recommend starting the recipe the night before and simply allowing the limes and water to soak overnight. This helps remove some of the bitterness of the fruit and produce a more silky and agreeable marmalade. After that, you'll need 2.5 hours to cook the marmalade and then 10 minutes of canning.

Marmalades are commonly used in British homes during breakfast, but if you've never used marmalade besides putting it on your toast, there are a variety of ways in which you can use our lime marmalade. For one, marmalades are great to accompany creamy cheeses, such as when served with a cheese platter. Thinned out with fruit juice and spices, marmalade can be the base for great sauces and glazes for beef, pork, or lamb. Add it to your favorite grilled cheese, mix it with mustard and oil to make salad dressing, or simply use a spoonful to top a cup of Greek yogurt and granola for a sweet and filling treat. Beautiful when used as fillings for tarts or cookies, marmalades are also perfect to make slow-cooked sweet and sour chicken wings or ribs.

This recipe was reprinted with permission from "The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest" by Carol W. Costenbader (Storey Books).

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds large Persian limes, about 18; peeled, zest cut into 2 inches long thin strips

  • 9 cups water

  • 6 pounds sugar, approximately 13 1/2 cups

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Cut the peeled limes in half and squeeze the juice. Set the juice aside.

  3. Scrape the pulp and seeds from the lime halves. Place them in a cheesecloth bag.

  4. Place the cheesecloth bag, plus the zest, juice, and water in a 6-quart saucepan. Cover and soak overnight, or for about 8 hours.

  5. Bring the water mixture to a boil and cook for about 2 hours, until the peels are soft.

  6. Remove the cheesecloth bag. Add the sugar to the pan and stir to dissolve. Boil, stirring often until a cooking thermometer reaches 220 F.

  7. Ladle the marmalade into clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Cap and seal. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water-bath canner. Adjust for altitude, if necessary.

  8. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
36 Calories
0g Fat
10g Carbs
0g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 300
Amount per serving
Calories 36
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 0mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 10g 3%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Total Sugars 9g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 1mg 7%
Calcium 2mg 0%
Iron 0mg 0%
Potassium 5mg 0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)