I really like Roses Lime Marmalade, so I have been thinking of trying to make some, but there hasn’t been much time (the Future Learn course “Gravity” was quite challenging and took a while to work through) and limes are quite expensive. Then I saw some limes going quite cheap on one of the market stalls so I thought I would give it a go. I bought two bowls of limes (£1 each) and another bag of sugar and was pleased to find that the limes were just over the weight needed for the recipe.
I initially found it hard to remove the pith from the skins, but got a sort of knack of doing it after a few tries. The trouble with limes is that they are so small that there are a lot to remove the pith from and cut up. I did that on the Saturday and then made the marmalade on the Sunday afternoon. I left it to boil for a little too long so a bit too much water had boiled away, so I adjusted that and added the sugar and boiled some more. It seemed to reach setting point so it was skimmed and left for a while so the peel wouldn’t rise in the jars. I got involved with something else so left it longer than usual, but it didn’t seem to matter. It was potted up and labelled and left to cool and the washing up was done…..
It made just over 5 lbs, I think – I had hoped it would be a bit more. I am not sure that it has set too well – seems to move a bit too much in the jar. The jars are full of peel, though, unlike with Roses, which doesn’t have that much. I was a bit concerned about that to start with – until I considered and realised that the peel takes up a lot more of the volume in limes (because they are smaller) than it does in oranges. Also the Roses is more of a greeny yellow and mine is just normal marmalade orange colour. I wonder what they do to theirs?
Mine seems to taste OK though – I think!
So would I make some again? I might do if there were more cheap limes, but I would need to concentrate more when cooking it, I think. It is not cheap, but quite satisfying to make ones own.