Ingredients:
15 Satsuma mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned*
6 cups water
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons ginger juice
peels from 3 mandarins
Directions:
Prep your jars and lids. Evenly divide the segments between the jars. I found that each jar could hold 3 mandarins’ worth of segments. Bring the sugar, ginger juice, peel and water to a rolling boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Discard the peel. Ladle into cans, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Seal and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.
Yield: 5 pints
*Remove any large bits of pith. My oranges were virtually pithless.
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:
This was a fast, fun recipe to make. I had a huge bag of Satsuma (the really small, flatish mandarins) that I just wasn’t getting through quickly enough. I was trying to think of a recipe that would use a bunch when I remembered those little tins of mandarins I’d seen at the store. I’ve actually never had the store bought variety before (they always looked too sweet with all of that heavy syrup) but I was intrigued. I made a light syrup and added some of the nearly pithless peels and some fresh ginger juice for extra zing. The result is so good! The best part is that the membranes surrounding the slices is so thin, you don’t have to supreme them prior to canning, it is super tender and soft. Plus satsumas are seedless and have a thin, loose, easy-to-peel skin so I was able to peel and section all 15 in just a few minutes.
Just imagine how great it will be to eat citrus when it is out of season?
wow. this is so creative. I just saw a box of Satsumas. regretting not grabbing them now!
Great post! I love to can, but have never tried citrus. You should share this on twitter with the hashtag #canvolution That group would eat this up!
questions: how do you make the ginger juice, or do you buy it? could I use grated ginger?
and what do you do/make with these? 🙂
they are gorgeous!
You can buy or make ginger juice. Do not use chunks of ginger.
I'm curious how these are tasting now a couple of months later. Other recipes I've seen for canned mandarins say that after a while they taste bitter due to not having all of the pith and membrane removed. Are you finding the same thing? Thanks!
I actually made these a year before I posted them. I wouldn't post something that doesn't taste good! Not bitter at all.
Thanks for that update. I've seen other bloggers say that their mandarins ended up being bitter after they say for a couple of months. I was scared to try, but I will go for it now!
They were really good — we just ate them two weeks ago in our lunches. They were not bitter at all.
Thanks for the report back, Heather!
I went ahead and made this recipe on February 20th. I ended up with some extra segments and syrup, which I combined and we ate the next day. Those all tasted great.
I opened up a jar of the ones that were canned this morning. Those tasted very bitter.
Did your jars sit for a few days before being opened and eating?
I ate some right away and days and months after canning. Not a trace of bitterness ever. Not even after 14 months. Did you use satsumas? Was the pith very bitter to begin with?
I used clementines (California Cuties) and not satsumas. They had very little pith and the ones I ate were pretty sweet. Do you think it makes a difference to use satsumas rather than clementines? Have you ever used clementines?
I used satsumas so that's all I can really address. Like with anything, if you substitute ingredients things might not come out the way they should.
I canned Satsumas from my father-in-laws tree I picked and they taste bitter after canning them. I didn't add sugar just water. What did I do wrong? They have seeds in them could that be the problem?
Left out the sugar?
ok. Do I need to take the seeds out also? Well I made the mistake and canned 70 jars how can I fix this. can I reopen them and start over?
I can't imagine the texture would be very good if you recanned them.
Can I open the jars and re-can them. I made the mistake and made 70 jars, but I followed the recipe. It was for just adding water.
bummer so I will just have to throw the batch out and start over