Sweet and Spicy Canned Onion Marmalade

Canned sweet & spicy onion marmalade is perfect for meat glazes, toppings and great for appetizer plates.

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I’ve been making this sweet and spicy onion marmalade off and on for years, ever since seeing the original version in Jan Roberts-Dominguez’s food preservation column in The Oregonian newspaper when I first started canning. I love sweet onions and was looking for a way to preserve them through the winter.

This sweet and spicy onion marmalade goes way beyond that though, adding flavor to meats, seafood, and appetizers. I used to think of this as an addictive condiment until I started making Addictive Tomato Chutney, but this runs a close second. Maybe I should call it “slightly addictive onion marmalade?”

Well, whatever I call it, it’s really just plain good. I’ve adapted it through the years to use honey instead of white sugar (and a lot less of it) and lots more red pepper flakes for added spice, though of course you can adjust that if you don’t like things as spicy as we do. This is only slightly spicy with the one teaspoon of red pepper flakes, though–not too spicy at all for most pf the people I’ve served it to – everyone loves it as much as I do!

Make Sweet & Spicy Onion Marmalade

Even though it’s a canning recipe, you don’t actually have to can it – it will keep a couple months in the refrigerator. Although it’s really easy to can, too–it’s just a matter of a few simple steps:

• prepping ingredients and adding them to a pot
• boiling and adding the honey/sugar
• boiling again for a minute
• ladling marmalade into hot, prepared canning jars
• sealing and adding them to a boiling water canner
• boiling for 10 minutes
• removing from canner and cooling

So in less than an hour, you can have six small jars of delicious sweet and spicy onion marmalade lining your pantry shelves–or to give away as special gifts.

Note: this recipe calls for low sugar pectin – I usually use this brand’s “flex batch” pectin, but you can also use this low or no sugar pectin.

This marmalade makes a wonderful glaze for meats and seafood, and is particularly good on a roasted ham. But one of my favorite was to serve this is as a simple appetizer on top of cream cheese or a flavored Boursin cheese. It’s really good. And I love serving different things on a platter for guests than what you can find in stores – it sorta personalizes it and helps it seem more special. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Note: if you need more info on how to can, you can read Boiling Water Canning Steps here or view this video:

Click the arrow for the full onion marmalade recipe (with print options)!