No, not a typo – for some reason at least one of the children found ‘marbalade’ easier to pronounce when small than ‘marmalade’, and so it has been named ever since. Here, February is the month of making the stuff and the delicious smell of bubbling oranges permeates everything for days. (Which is a good thing this year, as we have drainage issues.) So to spread the joy, we thought we would offer up the recipe we have honed over the years – and we are a family of toast and marbaladers, so for once we really do know what we’re talking about. ‘Failsafe’ is a bold claim, but try it and see …..
INGREDIENTS
- 900g Seville oranges
- 1 lemon
- 1.8kg ordinary white sugar
- 2.25lts water
METHOD
1) Put the sugar in a metal bowl and six very clean 1lb jam jars in the bottom left of the Aga, or on the very lowest setting you can manage of an ordinary oven. Put some little plates in the freezer.
2) Cut the fruit in half and squeeze the juice into a preserving pan of water. Put the pips and any pith in a square of gauze and slice the peel into strips adding them and any other bits of gubbins that result, to the pan.
3) Tie the muslin into a little bag and hang it from the handle into the liquid. Bring the whole lot to a simmer and cook until the peel is completely soft – this can take an hour or more, so find another job to do in the meantime – at which point take the bag out and leave it to cool.
4) Pour in the warm sugar and heat it slowly, stirring every now and then, until you’re certain the crystals have all dissolved.
5) Whack the heat up and squeeze every drip of goo out of the bag of bits into the liquid: this is the pectin, which helps the marbalade set, so it really is worth making sure you get it all in.
6) Bring the pan to a fast boil and after about 15mins put a teaspoon of the golden liquid onto one of the chilled plates. If it wrinkles when pushed, it has reached its setting point, but it won’t yet: keep testing it at five or ten minute intervals until it does.
7) Take it off the heat, stir in a knob of butter, and skim any scum off the top. Leave it to settle and cool for 20mins and put into the warmed jars, using a funnel and ladle unless you fancy a third degree sugar burn.
8) When it’s thoroughly cool, label it and store it away for as long as you can keep the ravening hordes off it – which here, isn’t very long.
9) Enjoy!
