Rhubarb Marmalade

Guest Post: (Thanks, Carolyn)

Rhubarb is one of my favourites: I remember as a child sitting on the back steps at my great-aunt's up near Rivers armed with a stalk of rhubarb and a bowl of sugar. I would dip the rhubarb in the in the sugar, and suck eagerly until the sweetness was gone, and then go back for more sugar! The tartness of the rhubarb lends itself well to the sweet.

This recipe makes for an excellent sweet-and-tart topping for toast, cakes, or just to eat straight from the jar! It can easily be halved for smalled batches, or doubled and put in 500 ml (1 pint) jars (process for a couple of extra minutes). If you don't want to can it, or don't have the right equipment, you can easily pour this into containers and store it in the fridge... I promise it won't last long anyway!
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Rhubarb Marmalade *
(adapted from Jean Pare's /Company's Coming: Preserves/)

makes 5 to 6 - 250 ml jars

2 lbs (900 g) fresh rhubarb, cut up
2 lbs (900 g) granulated sugar
2 smallish oranges

Put rhubarb and sugar into large saucepan. Remove a very thin layer of orange peel with no white pith on it (if you leave the pith, your will get a distinct bitterness). This takes a bit of work and a good, sharp knife. And preferably no toddlers tugging at your legs. Remove and discard white pith from peeled oranges.

Slice peel in very thin strips. Cut strips into short lengths. Cut the flesh of the oranges into small pieces. Add peel, pulp, and any juice collected on your cutting board, to saucepan.

Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes. Skim off any scum that forms.

Remove from heat. Test to see if mixture has reached jell stage. If jell stage not yet reached, return to heat and boil 2 minutes longer and test again. Repeat as necessary.

Fill hot sterilized jars with 1/4" headspace. Process for 10 minutes in hot water bath. Make sure you let your spouse lick out the pot.