I got a ton of grapefruits from a friend. I figured I would make them into marmalade before they go bad. All recipes I have found, ask for pectin.
What does pectin do and what will happen if I don’t add it?
It’s the jell in your jelly. One popular brand you can find at the grocery store is Sure-Jell
Without it, you’ll probably just have a tasty sauce.
Wiki seems to think that adding pectin to marmalade is optional, since citrus fruits are naturally high in pectin.
With your “ton of grapefruit” you could make a small batch without added pectin in the spirit of science, but popular opinion among marmalade-makers seems to suggest the Sure-Jell.
If it is the jell in my jelly, then without it I would just have a Y.
Is there anything else I can do without pectin (I live in the sticks)? preserves or something less jellyny?
My dad is a big preserver and canner. I think that unripe fruits generally have more pectin in them than riper fruits. I seem to remember one trick he used was cutting up unripe apples (off the trees in his backyard) and including the pieces in the fruit mixture to help it gel. I don’t know if he substituted for all the pectin in this way, though. Also, the results would be pretty hit-or-miss.
Even out in the sticks your local market will probably have pectin, at least if it is any bigger than a convenience store.
Or, as Sans Seraph suggested, you can try it without added pectin. I’ve made orange marmalade without added pectin before and it turned out fine.
It is on the stove. I will let you know
Commercial pectin is extracted from citrus rinds.
In fact, out in the sticks you’re probably more likely to be able to find it.
Most of it is, but I vaguely recall that there was one brand that was extracted from apple pulp.
I’ve actually made my own from apple pulp (what’s left over after running apples through a centrifugal jucing machnie) as a home chemistry expirement…
likely he can make marmalade that will gell just fine without additional pectin,
but it will probably need to be cooked longer to insure that it will actually gell.
WITH additional pectin added gelling is a bit more certain, so you are less likely to overcook it and drive away the lighter aromatics from the fruit.
AD
I don’t think you understand the level of “stickness” we are talking about here. 
Anyhow, at some point through the process I started to wonder whether I should try adding unflavoured gelatin or cornstarch to thicken it. In the end, pacience prevailed and I am the proud owner of several jars of what appears to be perfectly fine grapefruit marmalade with no additives. We will see when I spring it on my unsuspecting family.
thanks to all for the advice.
Just to make sure, you did do your canning with a modern recipe and processed your marmalade in boiling water? I don’t think marmalade is a particularly dangerous food to can, but you never know.
I don’t know about modern recipe (I guess it is since it asked for pectin). It was just the pulp, sugar and a little lemon juice. I thought of adding some rinds but decided against it since they were pretty green and unpretty.
My sterile technique leaves a lot to be desired, if that is what you were asking about. I boiled the (reused) jars and poured the marmalade in and left it to boil some more in a bath before I put the lids.
I don’t trust it anyways and try to consume it fairly fast (no more than 2 months) and will keep them in fridge, anyways. So it shouldn’t be too different from an already opened jar of commercial marmalade, right?
After some previous experiences with pickling, I gave up on preserving food altogether. I dream of making cheese, but c’mon, who am I kidding? I had never made marmalade before and tried this as a desperate measure on fruit I knew I couldn’t eat all. It came out ok, though. I might feel more inclined to repeat this in the future.
excellent, thanks for the link.
I dream of making cheese, but c’mon, who am I kidding?
There is cheese and then there is cheese. I make small batches of my own cheese all the time with nothing but milk, kefir culture, and salt. It’s very simple. Much easier to do than to explain.
http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir_cheese.html
If you feel adventurous, send me an email with your address and I’ll mail you some dried kefir grains you can reconstitute.
Oh, it should be fine if you leave it in the fridge. Plenty of excellent resources on safe shelf-stable canning, though - the classic is the Ball Blue Book, but I also love one called Small Batch Preserving.
I will take you up on it (as soon as I join and am able to see your profile where I presume your address is listed). Thanks.
The cheese most people make at home at home 
(queso de mano) is just that. Done in a day, pressed by hand (hence the name), eaten quickly as it dries and spoils very quickly. A couple of people I know insists it is really simple as long as you bother to have everything super clean and have the room for it. I have always been very curious about the whole cheese making bit. Again, with no aspirations of making Parmesan Cheese or anything fancy. More like domestic white soft cheeses.