Grapefruit and Meyer Lemon Marmalade

I had high hopes for finding kumquats in southern California last week (for a traditional marmalade), and was initially disappointed to only come home with five Meyer lemons. Then I found this recipe, which calls for exactly five meyer lemons. I was wondering if I had time to both shop for grapefruit and prepare the marmalade when there was a knock on the door, and a box of grapefruit - lovely pink grapefruit - arrived! Fate!

Here, you first peel the grapefruit and slice slivers of the skin. This wasn't too bad, I probably completed the task in only 20 minutes. Then you supreme the grapefruit (5 lbs), and save the interior membranes. The lemons are a bit trickier - you cut the ends off, and then you cut sections of lemon - skin on. I had some difficulty guessing where to cut to get on the correct side of the membrane, but it worked out. The sections are then cut into 1/4 inch pieces.

Then the usual ensues - the peel & sections of grapefruit are cooked with the lemon sections, along with water and more lemon juice. The membranes are put into a jelly bag (I made one with a piece of an old lace curtain) and cooked along with the rest. After about 30 minutes, you remove the jelly bag membranes, and squeeze it to extract pectin. This was not easy for me, as the bag was very hot - it worked to push the bag against the side of a bowl, and pour out the pectin mixture. This then goes into the marmalade, along with sugar, and more cooking.

I think altitude gave me a bit of a problem. The instructions say to cook for 25 - 30 minutes to a temperature between 225 and 250. After 35 minutes, my temperature was holding steady at 205. I cooked at this temperature another 15 minutes, and then just proceeded with the instructions (into jars, etc).

Initially the marmalade was really bitter. I like bitter, but it seemed too bitter. I learned from Cook's Illustrated that you can reduce the bitter taste with salt, so I added 1/4 tsp salt, and that did it!

In the end, the marmalade didn't set up as much as I would have liked. It did set up some, though, and it was fine on an english muffin. Maybe I should have cooked it longer, but it is still delicious.