Now, first things first, no-one, repeat no-one, is allowed to use this recipe for the summer show! This recipe comes from a book by Nigella Lawson even though it isn’t her recipe, she says she got it from a friend and has never made it. This recipe has been used by a certain member of the club for many, many years and he swears by it (and it has successfully given him a winner at the summer show every year he has entered) – in fact, this year he has made over 120 jars of it! The recipe will scale up or down to whatever you want by adjusting the quantities – this will make about a dozen jars.
Ingredients
- 700 g Seville Oranges
- 1.2 ltrs Water
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1.4 kg Sugar
Preparation Method
- Put the oranges in a pan with the water, bring to the boil then simmer robustly until soft – about 2 hours. Remove the oranges, keeping the water in the pan, and cut up, pulp and all, into whatever size peel you prefer.
- Remove the pips and put them in a small pan, with a small amount of water to cover, and boil for 5 minutes. In the meantime, put the chopped oranges and the lemon juice into a bowl. Strain the pips, add the water to the lemon juice and chopped oranges.
- Return to the pan and over a low heat add the sugar until dissolved. Then bring to a boil and cook until set. To establish this, put a small amount, 1 scant teaspoon, on a cold saucer. Let it cool and then prod or stroke it with a fingertip. The marmalade is set if the surface wrinkles. You should remove the pan of marmalade from the heat while you test just in case setting point has been reached. About 15 minutes is usually fine for a softish set.
- Take off the heat and pot, after removing any scum and stirring to make sure the peel is mixed through. This should fill a couple of warm, cleaned jam jars. Leave to cool a little before screwing on the lids.