Creating Gelatinous Gold..

I don't know about anyone else but in my book Marmalade has to be respected. It seems to polarise its tasters in a way that very few foods can... be it the sweet and sour, or the slight tingling sensation on you experience on your tongue if you eat it in enough quantity people either Love or Hate Marmalade.

Needless to say since I spent the last 3 days making it that I fall firmly into the Love Camp. A piece of toast with a bracing spread of Marmalade is definitely my preferred choice if jam is on the cards. What a wonderful use for my current overflow of lemons...


Blood Orange and Lemon Marmalade
3 Blood Oranges, thinly sliced and seeded
3 Oranges, thinly sliced and seeded
6 Lemons , thinly sliced and seeded
water, equal in volume to fruit
sugar, equal in volume to cooked fruit

Day One
Measure equal amounts of fruit and water into a heavy saucepan.

Heat and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer for 5 min. Remove from heat and stand in a cool place for 24 hours.

Day 2
Bring back to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stand for a futher 24 hours.

Day 3
Measure the volume of the fruit water mixture and mix in an equal volume of sugar. Bring it all to the boil over a low to medium heat and allow to cook for 20 min stirring constantly. Check if the mix is beginning to gel, if not simply keep checking every 10 minutes or so until it does (mine took around 50min). Once it will gel remove everything from the heat and pour into hot sterilised jars and check for vacuum seal.