Lemon-Lime Marmalade

I found this online somewhere when I was looking for a way to use up some lemons and limes that I had in the fridge. The original recipe called for using either all lemons or all limes but I wanted to use both so I tried it out and it came out really well! The baking soda in this recipe helps make the peels less bitter and more tender and eliminates the need to soak them overnight - it also helps if you remove as much pith as possible and slice the peels very thinly! The butter will greatly reduce or eliminate the foam that you will have to skim off and is in such small amount that it will not alter the pH enough to make canning unsafe but do not increase the amount as that could raise the pH too much!!

• Ready In: 1 hr 40 mins
• Yields: 4 pints

Ingredients

• 3 1⁄2 cups  citrus segments and  juice (I used about 10 lemons and 4 limes to get to this amount, you could use any lemon to lime ratio that)
•  zest from all your  citrus fruit
• 1 1⁄2 cups water
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6  cups sugar, divided
• 1⁄2 teaspoon butter
• 1 (3 ounce) envelope  liquid pectin

Directions

1. Thoroughly wash all your citrus fruit and remove the zest with a vegetable peeler. Scrape as much of the pith as possible from each strip of peel with a very sharp knife and slice the zest into very small, thin pieces.
2. Place the prepared zest, water and baking soda in a nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. In the meantime segment your zested citrus fruit by slicing off the ends of each fruit, standing it up on a cutting board and slicing off the pith. Then cut each fruit in half and cut between the membranes to free the segments. Place the segments in a 4-cup measuring cup and keep going until you have accumulated 3 1/2 cups of segments and juice.
4. Add the segments with juice and 1 cup of the sugar into the peel mixture. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes longer.
5. Stir in the remaining 5 cups of sugar and butter and bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
6. Quickly stir in the pectin and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
7. Remove from the heat and stir constantly for 6-8 minutes to evenly distribute the zest throughout the marmalade (if you skip this step you will end up with all of your zest floating to the top of your jars!).
8. Ladle quickly into sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude.
9. The jars need to sit for 2 weeks before you taste to let the marmalade mellow and lose some of its bitterness. I usually get somewhere between 3 and 4 pints from this recipe!