Marmalade

File under: Take One Ingredient - Marmalade

You can take your continental breakfast with its criossants and jam - or worse still -  slices of processed cheese and garlic sausage, and you can boil them for hours in a pot.  There is one thing that makes a breakfast, no British breakfast table is complete without it.  I'm talking about marmalade of course.  Let us put aside the Paddington controversey for the time being and focus on that king of condiments.

Marmalade involves a serious investment of time, I'm afraid.  There is a great deal of knife-work involved - food processors will turn your careful balance of peel-and-jelly to a cloudy bitter mess.  You need plenty of space, a sharp knife and the Archers omnibus on the radio.

My recipe below doesn't define how much you will make - I'm giving it proportionately - so for every pound of Seville oranges, you'll need 2 pounds of sugar and will make 2-3 pounds of marmalade.  Jars of marmalade make nice gifts - but be warned:  Anyone who takes a jar this year will expect one next year too - you could end-up spending days making marmalade for other people! 
At the end of the recipe, you'll find some nice additions (but not alternatives!).

Breakfast Marmalade
For every 1 lb of seville oranges, you need:
1 lemon
2 pints water
2 lbs sugar

Begin by giving the fruit a good scrub - you need to remove any coating that might have been applied as well as any dirt caught in the skin - don't forget that we're eating the skin here eventually!

Squeeze the juice from the fruit and pour into a large preserving pan or saucepan.  Reserve the pips and any of the central membrane from the oranges and lemon.  Next, you need to slice the skin of the oranges - this takes time!  With a sharp knife, cut each empty orange half into quarters, remove the pith and slice into appropriate sized pieces.  The less pith you remove, the more bitter your marmalade will be - it's a personal choice, as is the size you cut the peel into.  Remember that the peel will shrink slightly during the cooking process. 
Add the peel to the juice in the pan.

Tie all the pips and membrane (not pith) in a muslin bag and add to the pan.  Pour in the water and bring to a boil.  Boil for 1½ hours until the whole thing is reduced by about a half.

Remove the muslin bag of pips from the pan.  You need to get all the juice and pectin out of this and back into the marmalade - the easiest way to do it is to suspend the bag over the pan (in a colander is fine) and leave to drip until it's cool enough to handle.  Then squeeze the bag into the pan - a sticky and messy job I'm afraid.

Put a saucer in the fridge.  Add the sugar and put the heat back on under the pan.  Allow the sugar to melt, then bring to a rolling boil.  Boil for 10 minutes.  Spoon a little marmalade onto the cold saucer and return to the fridge for a couple of minutes.  When it comes out, draw your finger across the marmalade - if it wrinkles and separates behind your finger, it's ready.  If not, boil for 5 mintues more and repeat.

When you're happy that it's at setting piont, remove from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes.  This disperses any foam and bubbles, giving you a clear marmalade.  Decant into steralised jars, and seal. 

Additions:
There are a number of things you can add to your marmalade, including:

1 tablespoon of black treacle added towards the end of the final boiling
A good slug of whisky, brandy or Grand Marnier added right at the end - but make sure you've reached a good setting piont first!

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