Marmalade madness

Hurrah! It’s Friday and the weekend stretches out in all its loveliness. Have made two batches of marmalade this week – it reminded me of when I was planning my wedding. I wanted to give everyone something to take away as a reminder but all the websites I found for ‘wedding favours’ seemed to be full of sugared almonds. From somewhere in the ether came the idea that I could make everyone a jar of marmalade. Despite never having made marmalade before, this seemed a great idea. I bought 80 jam jars from http://www.jamjarshop.com and found a recipe in a magazine. My first batch came out fine but I only filled about 10 jars. The house smelled of marmalade for about two weeks and once I had finished, I swore I wouldn’t make any marmalade again. Equally, I had no idea whether it tasted ok or if my wedding guests would like the idea and be prepared to take a jar home with them or even enjoy eating it. We put a jar on everyone’s place setting and at the end of the day, there were no jars left on the tables. I did say something like “free refills if you bring back the jar” but it was my wedding day and I wasn’t thinking clearly. Luckily only a handful of people remembered so I duly made more marmalade the following January…but just one batch. So, back to this week’s marmalade. My ‘wedding marmalade’ recipe disappeared and I have never been able to find it again. I have adapted a number of recipes to come up with own very special one:

Snoo’s kitchen marmalade

1kg Seville oranges

2 lemons

1 pink grapefruit

2 litres of water

2kg granulated sugar

Peel the oranges, lemons and grapefruit trying not to include the pith. Then slice all the peel into very thin strips. This is laborious but worth it! Cut the oranges and lemons into quarters and put in a muslin (I used an old clean tea towel). Pour 2 litres of water into a big pan. Add the thin peelings and the tied up fruit. I usually just eat the pink grapefruit. Bring the pan to the boil and then simmer for two hours – making sure the bag of fruit is submerged. I stick the pan in the simmering oven in the Aga for a good two hours. Take the pan off the heat and lift the bag of fruit out – be careful as it will be very hot. Squeeze as much of the juice out of the bagged fruit as you can (I always find this very hard but barbecue tongs can help). Add the sugar and bring it back to a simmer stirring until the sugar is all dissolved. Boil rapidly for 25 mins. You can do the ‘set’ test but I have never really worked out whether my marmalade is at the right point – I end up with lots saucers in the freezer or fridge and numerous teaspoons for testing. But 25 minutes on a rolling boil does it for me every time. Let the marmalade stand for 10 minutes (I remove the scum from around the edge of the pan. Warm the sterilised jars (I just put them through the dishwasher) and fill with the slightly cooled marmalade. I put in waxed paper and then cover with the cellophane tops but you can just put the lid on. Pots of gleaming golden-ness!!!