Recipe: Cactus Candy, Cactus Marmalade, and Cactus Rubies

Cactus Candy
From: Arizona Cookbook

Select prickly pear cactus (or small barrel cactus if you own this type of cactus, since it's illegal to remove it from the desert). Remove spines and outside layer with large knife. Cut pulp across in slices one-inch thick. Soak overnight in cold water. Remove from water, cut in one0inch cubes and cook in boiling water til tender. Drain. Cook slowly in the following syrup until nearly all the syrup is absorbed. Do not scorch!

SYRUP for 2 QUARTS of CACTUS CUBES

3 c Granulated sugar
1 c Water
2 tb Orange juice
1 tb Lemon juice

Heat all ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Then add cactus. Remover cactus from syrup, drain and roll in granulated or powdered sugar. For colored cactus candy, any vegetable food coloring may be added to the syrup.

Cactus Lemon Marmalade

1/2 cup lemons, thinly sliced (cover with water and soak overnight)
2 cups cactus fruit, thinly sliced
1 cup sugar

Remove cactus skin and cut in half. Remove seed and thinly slice cactus. Combine lemon slices, water and sugar with cactus. Cook until thermometer reaches 220 degrees F. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Pour into clean, hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar mouths and adjust two-piece canning lids. Process in boiling water-bath canner for 10 minutes.

CACTUS RUBIES

This is a red jellied candy from an ancient Arizona food, the prickly pear cactus. Tourists buy a lot of this candy when they visit Arizona.

2 C. sugar
1 1/3 C. light corn syrup
1 1/2 C. red cactus juice
2 (1 3/4 oz.) pkg. powdered fruit pectin
1 tsp. baking soda

To obtain the cactus juice, gather very ripe red-purple tuna (fruit) from prickly pear cactus with tongs. Wash by overflowing water in container. Put fruit in a large pan and barely cover with water. Stickers will cook and strain out. Boil fruit until soft, occasionally mashing down and cutting through the fruit to release the juice. Strain through a cloth in a colander. This juice may be canned in fruit jars and used for candies and jellies, or used immediately.

Candy Procedure
Use two large pans because candy foams. In one pan, mix sugar and syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Simultaneously, cook foaming juice, pectin and baking soda mixture in another pan until foaming dies down, stirring both mixtures. Pour pectin mixture slowly into sugar mix and boil together about 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from fire, stir a bit more to allow bubbles to escape and candy to clear. Pour into buttered 10 x 6-inch glass dish. Let stand at room temperature until set (several hours).

Turn out on sugared wax paper. Cut into squares and coat with more granulated sugar. Allow to dry at room temperature before storing.