Meyer Lemon Vanilla Bean Marmalade

My coworker has a meyer lemon tree, which is going bonkers right now. She brought in a huge basket of lemons on Monday and I watched it dwindle as people brought home one, or two, or maybe three. At the end of the week she was looking at a half-full basket of lemons and lamenting that her tree is still full. Don't worry, I said -- because I often say crazy things. Don't worry. There's this marmalade recipe I've been dying to try...

Which is how I ended up with a kettle full of lemons steeping on my stove. Luckily my fellow automation chica also home cans and is giving me her excess half pint jars (I believe the exact phrasing was: YAY! I get to offload some jars. COME GET THEM NOW!) and her giant kettle. My giant kettle will be full of marmalade. Oof.

I loosely followed a couple recipes I found online, augmenting them along with information from PickYourOwn. I refer to Pick Your Own for waterbath canning times on many things. I also feel like canning recipes are based more on "how many of X I have on hand" and less on exact weights. I did not count the lemons, but I did measure the shredded lemon peel + juice.

Meyer Lemon Vanilla Bean Marmalade
8 cups lemon peels + juice (see instructions for preparation)
12 cups water
2 vanilla beans
5lb bag of sugar
peel of 2 granny smith apples

To prepare lemons:
Halve and juice lemons, reserving seeds. Slice peel into very thin pieces -- I used our food processor and a thin slicing disk. Measure juice + peels and then place in a very large non-reactive stock pot. Add water. Bring this mixture to a boil.

Wrap the lemon seeds and apple peel in cheesecloth and secure tightly with kitchen twine. You can also use a non-reactive tea infuser. Lemon seeds and green apple peel are both high in natural pectin and will help the marmalade gel. You can skip this if you intend to use liquid pectin. If so, follow the instructions on your pectin labeling for proper sugar quantities.

Bring lemon-water mixture to a boil. If using seeds and apple peel, simmer for 45min. Turn off heat and leave this mixture to steep and cool for 3-6 hours, or as long as overnight. Scrape the vanilla beans and add the seeds and pods to the mixture after it has cooled below boiling but is still warm.

After steeping, remove the cheesecloth or infuser containing the apple peel and seeds. Bring the mixture back up to a boil and add the sugar. Stir until sugar is fully dissolved. Cook, uncovered, at a low simmer until the mixture reaches 222F. Use your favorite method to test for gelling.

I always process jams and fruit butters in a water bath, because I do not trust simply inverting the jars. PYO says 15min, with 1/4" headspace. Store no longer than 18 months.

I checked our cans in the morning, and it appears to be set. (When I tip the jar to the side and inspect the headspace, everything stays put and there's no sliding. Victory!) Ours made 17 half-pints and one full pint. That's a lot of marmalade.