marmalade

 

I made two different batches of marmalade a few weeks back. One recipe was taken from The Sunday Times Magazine, a recipe from Sybil Kapoor, and the other was from the wonderful blogger Fanny at Foodbeam. The S.T Magazine recipe was a cinch and could be made even simpler if you cut out hand slicing the peel and instead, whiz it all in the food processor. But seeing as I was making it on a leisurely, bright Sunday morning I choose to hand slice the peel into the long, elegant shreds you only get from homemade marmalade.

The Foodbeam's recipe was also easy too but it was a 3 day event; lots of soaking, boiling and cooling and again, lots of slicing of the peel when the oranges were uncooked which seemed to take a while. This recipe in a lighter coloured, more fragrant marmalade than Sybil Kapoor's. It's less Oxford Marmalade and more Bonne Maman (as I'm sure French Fanny at Foodbeam would agree).

Having already spooned a heavy dent in the two marmalade batches over the past weeks through both greed and generosity, I decided to try and track down the last of this seasons bitter oranges and make a final collection for the store cupboard. Through lucky searching, I come across some at a nearby shop The Green Grocers where I purchased 2 more kilos to make the slightly, but only slightly favoured recipe from Sybil Kapoor.

            Sybil Kapoor's Favourite Marmalade

            1 kg Seville or similar bitter oranges  
            2 lemons
            1.7 litres of water
            1.4kg granulated sugar
            1 heaped tsp black treacle

1. Wash jam jars ready for serializing in oven at the last stage of making.


2. Wash all the fruit and place in a large saucepan with the 1.7 litres of water .


3. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour or until the fruit is easily pierced with a knife.


4. Remove the fruit from the pan and place in a bowl.


5. When the fruit is cool enough to handle, slice each fruit in half and scape all the pith and seeds back into the saucepan.


6. Bring back to the boil and reduce by half, this will take about 15 to 20 minutes.


7. Meanwhile, slice all the skins into thick or this slices.


8. Strain the pip and pith liquid with a large meshed sieve into a bowl, making sure you have extracted as much liquid as possible.


9. Add the orange peel and the liquid back to the large pan and clip or attach a sugar/jam thermometer if you have one (I don't).


10. Bring back to the boil and add the sugar and treacle and stir until the sugar has dissolved.


11. Boil vigorously for about 5 minutes or until the marmalade reaches setting point (106C/220F).


12. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.


13. Place clean jars in warm oven (130C) for 5 minutes to sterilise then poor in hot marmalade sealing with wax paper discs.