Kumquat Marmalade

What to do with a foreign fruit?

Growing up in Idaho in the 2000’s, the only thing I for sure could have told you about Kumquats was that they were orange and referenced a lot in children’s cartoons. And truthfully, I was not 100% on the orange part. The fruits were not something that were shipped up to Idaho, due to our small population and the intensity of shipping such a delicate fruit. But, last weekend, when strolling the aisles of my local Asian market for easy lunch options, I came across Kumquats in the produce section.

Kumquats, for those of you not in the know, are the smallest member of the citrus family, and vary from about the size of an olive or grape, to the size of a small mandarin. Because of their small size, they can be eaten whole, and the peel is actually far sweeter than the flesh. The effect is interesting, it definitely feels incorrect on fist bite when you are not used to it. Because you are eating the whole thing, you get a floral, sweet taste from the rind, but the flesh tastes like sour orange candy.

But what to do with these? I turned to the internet, and they came up with a classic that I ought to have thought of: marmalade! The marmalade is perfectly sweet and more floral than classic orange marmalade. I just made a classic marmalade here to test for the concept, but you could add any sort of flavors you want to this! Anything that goes well with oranges will probably go great with this. Once you have marmalade, you can eat it on toast, in cookies and cakes, or even in a cocktail (I will be experimenting with this later).

A couple of things to keep in mind when making this recipe: Kumquats are small and very very seedy. I weighed my fruit both before and after I de-seeded and sliced them, and the weight went down by HALF A POUND. The seeds are small and have to be picked out, maybe sit down when you do it. You can probably cut down on the time needed to do this step by just quartering the kumquats, but I thought the little circles were cute. The other thing is you want to go low and slow on cooking this. This is not something you can rush by turning up the heat. An important part of making this is extracting all of the pectin from the fruit, which is done by simmering low and slow for so, so long. Turn it on low, put a lid on it, sit at your kitchen table, and read a book.

Kumquat Marmalade

Ingredients

· 1.5 pounds kumquats

· 2 cups sugar

· Juice of one whole lemon

· 1 cup of water

Directions

1. Slice and de-seed your kumquats. This takes a hot minute.

2. Add everything into a heavy-bottomed pot and cook covered on low and slow until the sugar has dissolved and the rinds of your kumquats soften, stirring occasionally.

3. Bring heat up and boil until temperature reaches 215° F or until your jam passes the wrinkle test. Stir periodically

a. To perform the wrinkle test: put a plate in the freezer for 15 minutes. Pull the plate out and dribble some of the jelly of your marmalade onto the plate and wait for it to set. If it wrinkles up like jam or jelly, it’s done. If not, wipe your plate off, put it back in the freezer, and boil your jam longer

4. Let the jam cool to warm and then put it in the container. Let the jam come down to room temperature before putting it in the fridge.