I have marmaladed!

I have made marmalade. It's something I haven't tried before, but, inspired by Withy Brook's marmalade blog I thought I would have a bash. I have made jam, chutney and jellies before, so I'm not a complete beginner.

The recipe I used was Sarah Raven's from her Garden Cookbook which is quite a simple recipe, a 'marmalade for idiots' if you like. All you do is boil the fruit whole, cut it in half when it's soft, scoop out the steaming hot mushy pulp and the pips into a pan, boil that, strain and add the resulting liquid back into the pan with the original liquid, chopped peel, sugar and lemon juice. Then boil it to setting point.

I can only make jams or jellies with the aid of Mum's jam thermometer, so I raided her kitchen and eventually tracked it down after ransacking her cupboards and drawers. It all seemed ridiculously simple and I ended up with a lovely aromatic pot of amber liquid.

I guessed it would fill 12 one pound jars which it (astonishingly) did, like very well behaved marmalade. Although I left it for half an hour before putting it in the jars, the peel has tended to float up towards the top of the jar, so perhaps I should have been a little more patient. That, though, is the sort of thing you learn with experience. I'll know next time not to be so hasty.

So it looks and tastes like marmalade should. Not bad for a first go. It was absolutely worth all the trouble for the smell of the simmering oranges alone and I now have some lovely jars of marmalade stashed in the cupboard.