I had my usual shopping morning on Wednesday and apart from  the usual few things in the butcher shop I decided to get some fruit. That’s when I found they had Seville oranges – of course, it is marmalade – making time after all. I didn’t get them at the time as I wasn’t quite sure of the quantities. After lunch I thought I’d better go back and get the oranges, didn’t want to leave it for another week as they might sell out.

Later that afternoon with my best recipe in hand I got down to it.

The whole process is quite labour-intensive but the result is great so it is worth putting up with it. The oranges are boiled first of all and when they cool down, sliced and the flesh scraped out and rubbed through a sieve. 

The halves are sliced nice and thin, or I cut them with my kitchen scissors because that way I can control the thickness much better.

All the peel will go here in the large pan with the left over liquid from boiling oranges and the pulp, sugar and lemon juice added and boiled. It is tested on a very cold saucer (kept in the freezer for this purpose) and then potted. 

Of course I save my jars so this is the best kind of recycling. I made two batches from two kilos of oranges and now have an amazing amount of jars of marmalade.

I used to make marmalade each year around this time but because of the Covid wasn’t able to get the oranges. All is well  now, this will  keep us going.