SUCCESS MARMALADE

I finally took a look through this lovely old book that belonged to my mom and found the best marmalade recipe. I have tried and failed so many times, but thought I’d give it one more go..SUCCESS

Makes about 3 kg (I got out 8 x 250ml jars)

12 small oranges, preferably organic (I used 5 very big expert quality oranges, about 1.6 kg – I couldn’t fit more in my pot)
2 kg of sugar (I used 1.2 kg)
juice of 1 lemon, strained

Place oranges in a large heavy bottom pan, at cold water, allowing 2.5 cups for every 500 g of fruit.
Cover and simmer until skin can be pierced easily with a tooth pick. It’s about an hour.
Remove from water and allow to cool. Reserve cooking liquid.

When oranges are cool enough to handle, cut in half and slice as preferred.
Remove pips and place in a muslin bag to add to cooking liquid for pectin. (My oranges were seedless so I skipped this step)

Add your sugar and all the fruit, lemon juice and the pips to the liquid in the pot and cook over low heat until gel stage is reached.
I always test on a cold saucer. Mine took quite a long time.
The marmalade darkens as it gets to gel stage.
Remove the bag of pips. Mine produced no foam on top, but if it does, just skim it off.
While still hot, ladle into sterilized jars and seal.
This should be shelf stable, but I water bathed mine for 15 minutes just to be sure.

Note:

The end result is slightly bitter, slightly sweet and reminds me of my childhood.

You can use any citrus fruit and even combine more than one.

You can also add herbs, spices even nuts or liqueurs… I am not this brave yet.