1.5 kg Seville oranges
2 lemons
4 litres water
2.5 kg granulated sugar
1. Get the preserving (jelly) pan down from the attic, and scrub it.
2. Juice the oranges and lemons, reserving the pips in a large saucepan, and putting the juice in the jelly pan.
3. With a dessert spoon, dig out most of the orange and lemon pith from the halved fruit, and add it to the reserved pips. Add only as much water to the pips and pith as will allow it to simmer for an hour or so on a low flame. Stir regularly.
4. Fit a fine slicing disc to the food processor, and add the funnel to the feed tube. Cut the citrus peel (including the lemon) into quarters, and run it through the disc, reserving each lot in a big bowl.
5. Fit a coarse disc to the food processor, and run the shredded peel from the big bowl through again. Add the shredded peel to the juice in the jelly pan, add the water and bring to a simmer, stirring from time to time..
6. Pour yourself a large gin, administer same.
7. Once the peel has softened (breaking easily when you apply a wooden spoon to it), strain the contents of the pips and pith pan into the jelly pan.
8. Put two saucers in the freezer, and your clean jam jars in the oven at 100°C.
9. Add the sugar, and bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
10. Test for setting point at 5-minute intervals: take a small amount of marmalade in your wooden spoon and put it on one of the very cold plates, and let it cool. Push with a finger: when it wrinkles, you have reached setting point.
11. Turn off the gas, and leave the pan to stand for 15 minutes, then remove and discard the scum.
12. Get your jars from the oven on an easily washable tray, and plonk them down next to the jelly pan. Transfer the marmalade to the jars with a small jug, catching the drips on a plate. Screw down the lids and leave to cool.
Myths and legends: Some discard the lemon peel. Why? Some, including my sainted English mother, added citric acid. Why? Some friends of the Nordic persuasion add whisky to their marmalade: they should live and be well. Forget the stuff about wax discs. If you have tightly sealing lids, there's no need. If any of the lids don't pop down when they cool, just use those jars first. Variation on step 3 above: put all the pips and pith in a muslin bag, boil it up with the fruit and squeeze it into the jelly pan when the fruit has softened (adds time to an already long job: I prefer Aunt's method above). And finally, you don't need twice as much sugar as fruit, as most recipes specify. I may reduce it still further next year.
This is about as much as you'll want to make on one day: it's best to do any further batches separately. I made the mistake yesterday of preparing a second batch of fruit while the first was cooking. This is not a good idea for those of us with arthritic cramp-prone hands. Well, today I dealt with the second batch of fruit, and it is all now in jars, and set - hurrah! It's all a bit of a performance, but the results are worth it, according to independent witnesses.
Meanwhile, Martyn was beavering away upstairs, fitting a new switch to the shower room cabinet. I wasn't much use except as a labourer, but it is now working again. His next target is the lamp over the bathroom basin, the shaver socket on which has not worked during our administration at Forges-l'Evêque. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.
We underwent ordeal by Fortnums at lunch time, and it wasn't too bad. I mention it only because our route takes us past some fields in the charmingly named Plumyfeather Lane where a herd of deer was grazing. A good hundred of them. Next google search: East Sussex venison.
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