Photo by Virginia Pinkston

Yield: 9 half pints

Ingredients

• 6 pounds clementines or mandarin oranges, divided
• water
• 1½ cups sugar
• 6- to 7-inch cinnamon stick, broken into three pieces
• 18 whole cloves

Preparation
Measure and juice 2 pounds clementines or oranges. Remove any seeds from juice. Add water to juice to equal 4½ cups. Pour into medium-sized saucepan, add sugar, cinnamon-stick pieces and whole cloves, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil over high heat; reduce heat to keep mixture at low boil, and cook 1 minute. Turn off heat and cover pan.

Peel and section remaining 4 pounds fruit, removing any large pieces of pith in center and outside. (Sections will have some pith on them; don’t try to remove it all—just large, tough pieces.) Using fine-mesh sieve or colander lined with cheesecloth, strain spiced syrup into another medium-sized pot. Set aside. Remove cinnamon-stick pieces and cloves from strainer; rinse to remove any pulp clinging to spices, and set aside. Break cinnamon sticks into nine pieces.

Sterilize nine half-pint jars, and place one cinnamon-stick piece and two cloves in bottom of each hot, sterilized jar. Pack peeled fruit sections tightly into jars, leaving about 1 inch headspace. As you are doing this, heat strained syrup until it’s steaming but not boiling. Ladle hot syrup over sections in each jar, covering the fruit. Use butter knife to remove any air pockets and gently tamp down top layer of fruit into syrup. Top off with additional syrup if necessary to leave 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe rims, adjust lids and rings, and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.