Homemade Carrot Marmalade
A Traditional Marmalade With A Carrot Twist
Marmalade sandwiches anyone?
Well this year has been a huge success in our household with canning and I really, really got into the swing of it to my surprise.
I have done some canning before but not to the extent of nearly filling an entire pantry full of goodies to last til next year.
Free food offerings
People were coming out of everywhere offering me free, yes free fruit and veg because they couldn’t keep up with how much their garden was producing.
I know Mr.CBB says he gives away crab apples because the tree on his property is overflowing every year and they hate to see the apples rot.
There’s not a year that’s gone by that we haven’t given most or all the apples away or used them to make our own crab apple jelly or apple butter – CBB
Now you tell me who’s not going to say yes please to free fruits and vegetables if someone were to hand you a basket full of nutritious foods.
I know I would struggle to say no because I enjoy being in the kitchen as it’s a passion of mine to feed my family the best I can of the highest quality that I can with-in our grocery budget.
So now I had a kitchen full of beets, cucumbers and most of all carrots just waiting for me to make something magical with them.
I pickled the beets and cucumbers which my family loves but I was stuck on what I should do with all the carrots I had on hand. I do not waste food which means I will make sure that every last bit gets used up in the kitchen in some form or another.
I froze some of the carrots (yes you can freeze carrots) but there was still an abundance of them on my kitchen work-top and there aren’t many carrot recipes that I know of so I needed to think outside the box.
Since I am the creative type in the kitchen my mind got to work on a new recipe for my family and now for all the Canadian Budget Binder Fans.
Instantly I thought I would make a marmalade because we love it. I have made marmalade before but not with this amazingly simple twist.
What did I do? Well…. I simply mixed the carrots with orange to come up with this wonderful marmalade. Wait, honestly I added carrots. What better way to use up fresh carrots than in a marmalade recipe.
Marmalade history
Here are a couple of the most important quick tidbits about marmalade that I think are very important.
Scotland is credited with the discovery of marmalade and even took it with them to Nova Scotia when they went on the big migration. Now another very important fact is that a special bear in the UK loves his marmalade sandwiches.
Do you know who this special bear is?
That special bear is none other than the iconic Paddington Bear a well loved bear who was adapted into books and a TV series in the UK. Everywhere Paddington Bear went he made sure he was well stocked with marmalade sandwiches in his bag.
That memory of Paddington Bear takes me back home reading and watching him on the TV after school and of course eating marmalade sandwiches. This carrot marmalade recipe is really easy for anybody to create especially if it’s your first time making marmalade.
How To Make Carrot Marmalade
- 6 medium carrots
- 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind
- White Sugar
- 3 bitter oranges
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- Scrape and either dice or grate carrots finely
- Cook until tender, drain and dry
- Chop oranges. I cheated a bit here and actually whizzed them up in the blender. Quarter them into pieces and blend until they go liquid.
- Now combine these with the dried carrots. Add rind and juice of lemon.
- At this point you will need another bowl and a measuring cup.
- Measure and add 2/3 cup sugar for every cup of mixture that you have just mixed in the bowl.
- This is the interesting bit. Let this mixture soak overnight. All the juices from the oranges and carrots will combine to give you a liquid and should have dissolved a lot of the sugar. No pectin here!
- Last but not least bring your mixture to a rapid boil and cook until clear and like marmalade.
- Makes 7- 250ml jars
While you are in the process of making your marmalade it’s a great time to get your canning jars ready to go so they are nice and warm.
There you have it Carrot Marmalade from my kitchen to yours. I hope this simple marmalade recipe makes its way into your home and into your hearts as a tradition
Enjoy your marmalade sandwiches.
-Nicky!
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