Pumpkin-Orange Marmalade Recipe

When I went to use the three sugar pumpkins that my little garden produced my husband brought up -- with twinkling eyes -- that his mom used to make pumpkin jam and he loved it. Well, you KNOW I just had to try it, right? First, I tried a recipe that I'd found off of Rosa's Yummy Yums that came out pretty well, but a little runny and not perfect. Next, after friends came over with their Portuguese Mother's Pumpkin-Orange Jam I tried to make that. (I had no idea that Pumpkin Jam was a Portuguese thing. Who knew?) I think it came out well! As usual, I used several recipes to come up with this one. Here it is:

Pumpkin-Orange Marmalade Recipe

1 pound pumpkin puree (steam pumpkin chunks in water until tender, then puree in food processor)

2 1/2 cups sugar (Fannie Farmer says that for each cup of fruit you should have 3/4 C sugar - I estimated and used a little less)

2 T honey

Shake cinnamon

2 oranges very thinly sliced, then cut into tiny wedges about 1/2" wide

pinch salt

Stir Pumpkin and Oranges together and let it set overnight in the fridge. (two recipes suggested this, so I did it --- sigh.) Next day put all ingredients together in a heavy sauce pan and stir while the sugar dissolves and the liquid reduces. Fannie Farmer says that Jams / Jellies etc., should get to 8 degrees over the boiling point of water to be sure it "sets". I had a hard time reaching that temperature without getting scalded to death by hot jam bubbling and popping out of the pan. But, I did my best and it is nicely set.

Now, if you are going to can this jam and store it on a shelf to use at a later date -- you need to go through the whole sterilizing of the jars and then probably even a pressure canner / water bath. I doubt the 2 oranges add enough acid to skip that step -- so I'd say go for it. (I'm new at the canning thing.) HERE is a good description on how to can plain old pumpkin -- it should be a good guide.

I was over at my Mother-in-Law's house this weekend and asked her about her pumpkin jam recipe -- I'll try that and let you know how it goes. Enjoy!