Ingredients:
8 cups supremed Cara Cara segments
4 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 box liquid pectin (3 oz., one of the little packets in the box)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used bottled)
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier
zest of 2 Cara Cara oranges
Directions:
Prep jars/lids for canning. Add the orange segments and zest into a large, heavy bottomed pan. Add the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring carefully to avoid splashing, break up the segments, occasionally. Boil until it begins to reduce and thicken. Stir in the pectin, Grand Marnier and lemon juice. Continue cooking at a low (rolling) boil for 5-10 minutes or until it looks jammy. Fill the jars leaving 1/4 inch headroom. Process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Yield: 5-6 8-oz jars. I ended up with 5 8-oz, 1 4-oz and a couple of spoonfuls
Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.
My thoughts:
Today was a busy citrus day at the Rappaport house. I made this jam and marmalade for the first time. I had many pounds of citrus I wanted to use up and marmalade is a lot of fiddly work. I can’t imagine doing two batches of that in one day unless a. I suddenly became very, very quick at it or b. someone was paying me. So I started to think of something citrus-y I could make that would be a little less time consuming. Don’t get me wrong, it takes a long time to supreme so many oranges but at least I didn’t have a peel to worry about and the actual cooking of the jam was quick and easy. I honestly I have never seen a recipe for citrus jam before but I didn’t see any reason why it would work or be perfectly tasty. Sort of a marmalade without the candied peel. As it turns out, it makes a lovely jam, freshly orange scented and not as sweet as jelly would have been. The segments almost caramelize and really pop. Since Cara Caras are pink inside, the jam is a pretty orangish rose color. It is yummy on bread etc but I am already thinking of ways to use it in new recipes that need a bit of citrus.
I did “cheat” and added some liquid pectin despite oranges being pretty high in pectin. Cara Caras are seedless and I didn’t want to add any bitterness from the peel to the jam. I knew it would easily set up with just a bit of pectin and it did.
This must be wonderful! I love all things orange:@)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cara Cara oranges. There isn't another orange that can compare. I am going to go pick some up along with jars and make this – hopefully this weekend! Thanks so much for the recipe!!
You post a lot of Cara Cara recipes, but I've never seen them at the grocery store!!! 🙁 🙁 Where do you get them from, they sound lovely!
Giant, Safeway, Mars, Costco
Wait, really!?!?!?! How am I missing this??? Thanks – I'll look closer next time 🙂
Yup. They are normally bagged vs. loose if that helps.
It does – thanks for the tip! I always get loose oranged
I'm with Nakiya on this one, I've never seen them either but will take a closer look. I've always been intimidated by jam, but the only way to grow is to push through those fears. After all, what's the worse thing that could happen…a wasted few dollars for a priceless lesson..right? Ok I'm going to do it!
I have noticed that my local grocery store listed them as "Pink Oranges" on the sign. But then the sticker on the actual orange will say Cara Cara.
This is some gorgeous jam, sounds delicious!
I would probably just eat the orange jam with a spoon! It sounds yummy.