I MADE SOME MARMALADE IN JANUARY - HERE IS RECIPE

TWO NICE THINGS HAPPENED INDOORS THIS MONTH OF JANUARY

1  I made some marmalade and then

2  I made a second lot of marmalade because it has to last the whole year and we love it.

HERE IS THE METHOD I USE

I used my old Preserves for all Occasions book (Penguin) which I find indispensable where jams etc are concerned.

Preserves for all Occasions

The author Alice Crang (back in 1953) says you can use a pressure cooker to cook the oranges, if you have a pressure cooker.  So:

you need that, some clean jars and lids (old pickle jars is what I use), about 1 lb 8 oz Seville oranges and the same weight of sugar (plain white granulated),

Cook the whole oranges (washed of course) in about 1 and a half pints of water, in the pressure cooker for about 15 minutes.  Allow it to cool and then remove lid of cooker.

Marmalade, quantity from 1lb 8 oz Seville oranges

Take out the oranges and keep back  the water on one side.  

Next, the time-consuming bit, and you need a sharp knife and something good on the radio.

Cut the orange peel into thin strips, and also put the pips and any orange flesh in a piece of muslin cloth (which  you might have to go out and buy specially!)

Tie the muslin into a bag shape.

You can do the next bit in the pressure cooker pan but I prefer to use my old preserving pan as it is bigger, has sloping sides and a spout thing.

Add the sliced orange peel and the bag of pips and orange flesh to the water and  heat them, then

Gradually add all the sugar, stir till sugar has dissolved.  At this point you:

boil the mixture vigorously

Takes about 20 minutes till it gets to the "setting point".  Remove the muslin bag of pips

Test for setting by putting some marmalade on a cold saucer, do this several times if the first drips of marmalade do not seem to have set (the marmalade makes a film and flows very very slowly when the saucer is tilted).

Allow the marmalade to stay in the pan about 20 minutes, then stir it carefully, to mix in the peel throughout, as you don't want all the sliced peel to stay at the top of the jars.

Then you know it is OK to put in the warmed jars, and cover.  

I find it helps to put labels on with the date you made it, then you can eat up last years marmalade before you start on this years!