Greengage marmelade

So let me show how we make marmalade on a countryside. First you find out your grandma has a tree too full of plums called greengage (sub-specie italica, I hope greengage is the closest I could come to the actual name of fruit). Then you’re like: ‘Hell yeah let’s make marmalade out of 12 kilos of it!”
Then you go to the basement where the jars you’ve been collecting for a whole year are hiding. And you try to find the lids. And then the cooking starts. In a very big pot (I made 6 kilo of fruit per batch). There is no place for fancy bought jars or I don’t know what. Just buckets of fruit and… Sugar. I’ve been a marmalade cooking enthusiast for quite a long time and I know that usually there is 1 kilo of fruits per 1 kilo of sugar. And that is a lot… But still sugar works as preservative. Usually I also add pectin but my mum said she heard from a friend of a friend it’s bad and… Long story short – I made it out of 250 grams of sugar per kilo of fruits.
The marmalade has quite liquidy consistency but there are more reasons to this. First – this type of plum has much more water that the regular plum. And second – I didn’t cook it for very long. If you prefer it more thick cook longer or add some pectin. The only thing I’m worried about is the expiration date but hopefully they will last. That’s why there is lemon juice in the recipe – it also works as preservative.

For 7,5 kg of marmelade; A bit hard; Time of preparation 70 min

6,6 kg greengages (I didn’t pit them because it’s impossible to do that beforehand.)
1,5 kg sugar
Juice of 2 lemons

1. Make sure your jars are clean. Put them in the oven on 70°C for 30 min or more so you sterilise them.
2. Place plums (squish them in your hands before) and sugar in a big saucepan. Heat up.
3. You will cook them for around 40 minutes in total.
4. After 10 minutes of cooking the plums will start to fall apart a bit. Use the spatula (like you see on the photo) to pick up the pits. Do this while the marmalade is cooking. Try to collect as many you can.
5. When 40 minutes are over check the consistency. If you want it more thick cook it for longer.
6. Then fill it in jars with a help of a funnel. It is important to use it because it’s your last check for pits!
7. Cover the cups and place them under blankets for 24 hours so the cool down slowly.

Wise-ass corner

First of all I know this is a lot of talking but when cooking marmalade you really need to pay attention to some things such as cleanliness and pits (we don’t want your uncle to break his teeth).

You can use it for regular stuff – like to put on bread with some butter. But mostly I love to put marmalade in yogurt, on top of smoothies or on cottage cheese.

I love this marmalade because it’s quite sour so I know it will be perfect with chocolate desserts. Yuuuum.

Another thing I’m absolutely in love with is the colour. SO PRETTY.