The Quest for Marmalade: An exotic citrus mini-series

This photo was taken from www.thehungrymouse.com.
It is definitely not my property, but it IS a gorgeous photo.

Marmalade. I'm not talkin' the Voulez-vous coucher avec moi type, either. I'm talkin' fruit spread. It's tantalizingly sweet-tart flavor with luscious bits of candied peel and fruit are calling to me with siren song.

Alas, the old stand-by of orange marmalade is just ho-hum. I'm looking for something electrifying!

You guessed it. It's April, and I'm starting to get a little huffy about the end of citrus season because I promised myself that I would make marmalade this year. I've been stalking the fruit section at my local grocery stores and I've found a few promising possibilities.

Ugli/Uniq Fruit

Grapefruit

Lime

Kumquat

Meyer Lemon

The citrus that is available to me is a little touch and go as far as ripeness and quality, but I can be choosy since I will be making micro-batches of each to see WHICH MARMALADE REIGNS SUPREME!

 Ok, so I really loved the original Iron Chef on Food Network beore they adapted it to the crummy Iron Chef America version that plays now. Who doesn't enjoy watching dubbed chefs make art out of nasty ingredients? I definitely do.

Anyway, before I continue, some of you may not know what a micro-batch is, exactly. It's a very small batch of whatever you're making. It can yield 3 or 4 pint jars, and is usually a tester for recipes, techniques, or new ingredients.

Or for people whose husbands won't eat marmalade 'til it's coming out of his ears. *Ahem.*

TO WHOM COULD I POSSIBLY BE REFERRING? 

No one in particular. No one at all...








But seriously. They're useful if your kitchen storage space is at a premium. And believe me, mine is.

Stick around and in the next day or so I'll be posting about my first encounters with Ugli Fruit, a tangelo that was originally discovered growing wild in Jamaica.

Will you be making any marmalade before citrus is "out of season?" What is your favorite kind? How do you like to eat it?