Marmalade mayhem and a recipe

14 comments

More orange. I seem to be on an unintended orange and lemon theme this week. Orange mittens, lemons in hedgerow and marmalade making. I cannot resist the bright colours. We had a hail shower this afternoon, that sent the chickens running for shelter. Always a funny sight seeing the cockerels make a run for it! They were soon back outside my window, preening their feathers back into the right places. The point is, that we are in mud season and orange is the perfect way to bring some much needed sunshine into our lives.

My veg box has been delivered this afternoon with my extra order of  Seville oranges. I’m about to make my next batch of marmalade. As promised, here is my marmalade recipe. (Old recipe written in imperial measurements. The whole numbers always appeal to me.)

Ingredients

3lbs (1.4kg) Seville oranges
juice of 2 lemons
6 pints (3.4 litres) of water
6lbs (2.7 kg) sugar

Makes about 10 lbs (4.5kg) of yummy marmalade.

Method

1. Extract the juice from the oranges. Put the pips and the membranes in a muslin bag. Use string to tie up the top of the bag.

2. Cut the orange peel into thin strips. These strips will be in the final marmalade, so make the strips thick or thin, depending on your preference.

3. Put the orange and lemon juice, water, sliced peel and muslin bag in a preserve pan. Simmer until the fruit has softened. About 2 hours should do it.

4. Remove the muslin bag and squeeze it between two spoons, over the preserve pan. Pectin from the pips help the marmalade to set properly.  Discard the bag.

5. Add the sugar and stir until it has all dissolved, then return it to the heat.

6. Bring to the boil, until it has reached the setting point. Just like jam making.

7. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 10 to 15 minutes. This helps the shredded peel to be evenly dispersed throughout the resulting marmalade. This is a good stage to remove any scum from the top of the marmalade.

8. Pot and seal, as you would in jam making.

There are lots of variations, such as using brown sugar or adding whisky. This recipe is just the start.

Enjoy!

(No wobbly eyes were harmed or used in the actual making of the marmalade.)

I’m linking up with Natural Suburbia’s Creative Friday

14 comments

  2. Thanks for the recipe Cheryl, and thank you for using imperial measurments, I must find time to make some, homemade marmalade always looks so delicious………………may have a problem cutiing into those oranges with those sad googly eyes gazing at me. xx

    1. The wobbly eyes fell off before it became an issue. Either that or the children reclaimed them. I did see them after making the marmalade, so I’m 100% sure they didn’t make it into any of the pots.

  4. THIS IS DEFINITELY A GREAT MONTHLY MAKE! WELCOME TO THE GROUP, YOU CAN POST A MESSAGE WHEN YOU HAVE DONE YOUR FEB MAKE AND I CAN COME AND HAVE A NOSEY! LOVE ANNIE X

  5. I know what you mean about the mud! At this time of year I give up on wearing any sort of proper leather shoe – I only have to venture outside to get my footwear caked in mud! Lovely looking marmalade – it would be fun to try the recipe – I will have to order some Seville oranges in for next week I think.

    Pomona x

    1. Love the frosty mornings. Best time to get things done in the garden and it makes the school run less muddy. Hope you enjoy your marmalade making.

  7. Popped along to check out your marmalade recipe – it looks very good and I laughed out loud at the oranges enhanced with wobbly eyes! Glad to hear they didn’t go in the marmalade! Hope you weren’t hard-hearted enough to remove the eyes and cut the oranges up after you made them into such characters!

    1. Given the choice of more marmalade, I’m afraid the eyes had to go. I think the children, might have removed them, in fear that the eyes might end up in the pot. Very sensible!!!

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