Natural marmalade is not only tasty, but also a healthy delicacy. It contains pectins, which stabilize the body's metabolism, lower cholesterol levels, and improve intestinal motility and peripheral circulation. Pumpkin, apricots, apples, plums, cherries, pears and citrus fruits are high in pectins. It is from these fruits that marmalade can be cooked without the addition of gelling substances.
Pumpkin marmalade
Peel the pumpkin of seeds and core, remove the rind and cut the pulp into pieces 2-3 cm long. Put them in boiling water (400 g of water per 1 kg of pumpkin) and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the water into another saucepan, add 1 kg of sugar and boil the syrup, skimming off the foam. Pour the cooled pumpkin pieces with hot syrup and leave them for 6-8 hours. After that, put the container with pumpkin on fire, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pumpkin from the stove, leave for 2 hours and boil again for 5 minutes with constant stirring. Repeat the operation several times until the pieces are softened. Chill the jam and rub through a sieve until smooth. Put the mashed jam in a container with a wide bottom and cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until it starts to lag well against the sides of the pan. Moisten a wide dish with cold water and put the marmalade on it, air dry for several hours, cut into pieces and roll in granulated sugar. You can store marmalade in glass jars under nylon lids.
Apricot marmalade
Ripe, but not overripe apricots are suitable for marmalade (in overripe fruits, the content of pectin substances decreases). Rinse the apricots, cut in half and remove the pits. Prepare syrup (0.4 liters of water and 40 g of sugar per 1 kg of fruit), transfer the apricots to a colander and blanch in boiling syrup for 15-20 minutes. Rub the fruits through a sieve, bring the puree to a boil and simmer, gradually adding 5 cups of sugar. Stir the puree constantly with a wooden jar during cooking. To check the readiness of the marmalade, run the jar along the bottom of the container. If there is a groove left, the marmalade is ready. Dry it as described above.
