Honey Sweetened Cara Cara Orange Jam
Back in mid-February, my husband and I made our quarterly trek out to Costco. We got necessary items like toilet paper and dishwasher tablets, as well as a number of not-so-necessary things like 96 ounces of dried blueberries and ten pounds of Cara Cara oranges.
I adore Cara Caras for their pink flesh and sweet/tart flavor. But as the sole fruit eater in my household, ten pounds is a lot to move through in a timely fashion. A preserving project was in order.
My natural first thought was marmalade, but it’s an awful lot of work and my time was decidedly short. Then I remembered citrus jam. It’s something I’ve made in the past with grapefruit to delicious results and I had a feeling that it would work just as well with the Cara Cara oranges.
There’s still a bit of knife work to be done with orange jam, but it’s far less fiddly. You cut the tops and bottoms off the fruit and then cut away the peel to reveal the fruit inside. Once the citrus sections are bare, you use a sharp knife to segment (or supreme, if you want to use the fancy term) out the pieces.
When you’re all done, you should have a number of beautiful orange half moons, a stack of peels, and a limp pile of membranes and seeds. I like to pack the peels into a large jar and cover them with white vinegar. After a couple weeks of steeping, you’ll have orange-scented vinegar cleaner.
I sweetened my jam with honey, because I like to avoid refined sugar when possible. However, if honey isn’t your thing, you could also use 2 cups of sugar. If you do opt for the honey, make sure to use one that has a mild flavour, so that it doesn’t overpower the flavour of the fruit.
Honey Sweetened Cara Cara Orange Jam
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Cara Cara oranges
- 1 1/3 cups mild honey
- 1 juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Prepare 3 half pint jars and lids. Because this is a small batch, the yield might vary a little. I’ve made it once where I got three half pint jars, and another time I only got two half pints and one quarter pint.
- Trim off the tops and bottoms of the oranges and cut away the peels. Using a sharp knife, separate the orange flesh from the membranes. Make sure to work over a bowl or measuring cup, so that you can catch all the juice. Once you’ve removed all the fruit from the membranes, give them a good squeeze over your bowl to wring out the last of the juice.
- Measure out four cups of the segmented fruit and juice. Add the honey and stir until it dissolves into the fruit.
- Pour the fruit and honey mixture into a low, wide pan or skillet and place over medium high heat.
- Bring to a boil and cooking, stirring regularly, until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken.
- You know it’s done when you can pull your spatula through the cooking jam and it doesn’t immediately rush into fill the space you cleared.
- Stir in the lemon juice in the last minute or two of cooking.
- When jam is finished, remove the pan from the heat. Funnel the jam into prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.
- When time is up, remove jars from canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel to cool.
- Once jars have cooled enough to handle, check the seals. If they are good, the jam is shelf stable for up to a year. If any jars do not seal, put them in the fridge and use promptly.
Notes
Nutrition
I like this jam for sweetening plain yogurt or spreading into English muffins or scones. How would you use it?
This is perfect! I just got 2 bags of oranges last night in my co-op box. My son doesn’t like a lot of jams, but told me he would try orange. How nice to wake up to a recipe ready to go. =) Thanks!
Quick question – 4 pounds of oranges to start, or 4 pounds of the flesh to use? As I’m typing this, I’m sort of realizing the silliness of the question, (4 pounds of flesh is a lot!), but I’m going to go ahead and post it anyway!
You start with 4 pounds of whole oranges.
I bought that same big box of oranges at costco, but jam never occurred to me. This sounds delicious! I’ve been making a lot of strawberry orange sorbets for dessert . . . but it really is a big box of oranges – sounds like jam is in order.
Two things I love about this particular recipe/post:
You sweeten the jam with honey! I think I will be doing that next time. And the peels in vinegar to scent “eco” cleaning products. Thanks for the ideas!
This jam sounds absolutely lovely. I adore citrus! And great idea for the homemade cleaner too!
I’ve always wanted to make jam, but whenever my mom made jam when I was a kid, she would ALWAYS burn it. So I guess I always assumed it was hard. I think that I should try it out though. This looks great by the way!
Under notes…..yield 2 to 3 pints? Should say half pints ……right? Its on the stove right now
I’ve not had much luck at supreming oranges… what would happen if I didn’t do it and left the membranes on?
The texture of the jam would be really stringy. Citrus membranes don’t break down well when cooked. You could try it, though.
I came upon this recipe just when I was wondering if I would be able to eat the Cara Cara oranges that I had left over from a 5 pound bag before they spoiled. I ended up cutting the recipe in half and used 2 pounds of oranges and 1 cup of organic sugar. It turned out absolutely delicious! And since I use vinegar for a lot of my household cleaning, I love the orange-scented vinegar. Thanks for a great recipe! This will go in my rotation for the end of next winter too, so I can enjoy Cara Caras even after their season is past.
I love homemade jams! All I want now is cara cara oranges … but this is the Midwest, so wish me luck in finding them! 😀
Was excited to try this jam, but it was very sweet with so much honey, and went from being orange supremes in water to… just reduced orange supremes (the oranges “soaked up” the liquid and never “jammed”). I tried again with another batch, and the same thing happened again. I stopped cooking when the color changed and added 1/3 cup of sugar, which made a world of difference. Immediately, it jammed and I was able to can something that is going to be VERY pulpy, but still edible and tasty… maybe it was my cara caras, maybe it was my honey, but when I try this again, I’ll use sugar or a sugar/honey mix, rather than the straight honey as called for in the recipe.
Nice to see a citrus recipe that is not a marmalade. I love marmalade but wanted something different. Thanks!
This was amazing! I added about half a teaspoon (maybe less) of chili powder, and as soon as my sweetie tasted it, I had to promise to make more. Thank you!
It’s been a while since you posted this, so I hope you can still answer my questions. Can you use any citrus with this recipe (mandarins, clementines, plain oranges, etc.) with this recipe? And what is your trick to the consistency? While I’ve canned before, I’ve never made marmalade and don’t want it to turn out runny. Thank you!
Woow delicious jam.. i love home made jam..This jam very tasty with chapathi,, Really loved it !!!
Have you ever tried adding some cranberries to the mixture as it cooked? Cranberries and oranges seem to go together. I bet it would make a yummy addition.
The storing process is described so nicely. I really need that part to store the jam . And you write it so nicely. Thanks,it is very helpful for me.