Etrog (Esrog) Jam / Marmalade

Ingredients

• 1 citron (etrog or esrog)
• 6 cups water
• 3/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. 1

   1 etrog yields 10 ounces marmalade. Chopped etrog should equal about 1 cup for the amount of sugar shown above. For larger recipes, you will need up to 1 cup of sugar for each etrog.

2. 2

   The whole preparation process takes most of a week. The last step takes 2 hours. Do not be in a hurry.

3. 3

   ONE MONTH AHEAD: Start saving glass jars with metal lids. Jelly and spaghetti sauce come in this kind of jar. You need the clean jar and lid, or else you have to buy special jars at $1 per jar and they are only sold by the dozen. BUY A CANDY OR JELLY THERMOMETER. It costs a lot less than you spent on your etrog.

4. 4

   Before beginning, decide how it should look when you are done: Do you want pieces of fruit left in it which I call "jam", or a clear "jelly"? If you want small pieces of peel in the finished jam/jelly – they are pretty, and show that it really is from etrog! – I just call this "keep-the-peel". You can do a combo: clear jelly with bits of peel, or full-of-fruit jam with bits of peel, or chop up the whole thing without peeling. The peel keeps its color through all the cooking – if the peel is green, or parts are an ugly color, keep those pieces LARGE so you can take them back out of the almost-finished jam/jelly; you can't just throw them away to start with because you need their flavor. You CANNOT skip all the soak-simmer-drain steps because of bitterness in the etrog. (Some recipes say throwing away the white pith helps, but then there is very very little fruit. I didn't try it that way.)

5. 5

   PROCEDURE: Wash etrog and trim off the ends. ("Keep-the-Peel": Peel the etrog now.) Slice and remove as many seeds as possible. Try slicing the long way into eighths to get seeds out as efficiently as possible. There seem to be about 1,000 seeds per etrog, so allow at least 1 hr for this step.

6. 6

   "Jam": Chop fruit into very small pieces, including the peel (consider using the food processor). For "jelly", put fruit into a muslin or cheesecloth bag so you can take out the fruit bits when you are almost done. "Keep-the-Peel": Cut peel into thin strips about ½" long and leave out of the bag.

7. 7

   Cover fruit (and peel) with water and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. Bring everything to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Drain fruit.

8. 8

   Cover fruit with water and simmer again for 20 minutes, then refrigerate everything for at least 12 hours. Drain. Cover fruit (and peel) with water and simmer uncovered again for 20 minutes. Drain fruit. (Some recipes say repeat the soak/drain step every night for 6 days, don't bother simmering; let me know if you try and it works OK.).

9. 9

   Cover fruit with water and add most of the sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 1 hour. DO NOT WALK AWAY – it can burn on the bottom. If it does burn, do not stir up the burned parts – dump the stuff into a clean bowl, wash out your pot, put the jelly back in and continue. "Jelly": Take out the bag of fruit. Let it cool down, then squeeze it out thoroughly into the pot and throw out the rest of the mush.

10. 10

    Taste to see if you need to add more sugar. Continue simmering for ½ hour or more (temperature should be 220º–222º, the water should be syrupy and the fruit should be clear-ish.) Pour a little on a saucer and put into the freezer until really cool – if it is still runny you will have to add in ¼ - ½ cup of orange marmalade per quart to add "pectin" and cook 15-20 minutes more – you do not have to tell anybody!

11. 11

    How to put in jars: Put your clean jars and lids in a pot, fill the pot and jars with cold water. Bring to a gentle boil. No your jars will not melt – this is the same way they were treated when filled with their original contents. Drain out a hot jar, fill with hot jelly/jam, put on the hot top tight. As it cools, the little button on the top that popped up when you first opened it will pop down again. This is what keeps out the bacteria that would spoil the jelly. It should keep well on a shelf now, but I keep mine in the fridge anyway – kept 2 years even after I opened it.