Marmalade making - spread the love!

I see Winnie the Pooh is winning the battle of the breakfast spreads over his bear chum Paddington! Or, as retailers would put it, sales of honey are outstripping those of marmalade. That seems to be the case according to a recent report.

Now I like a bit of marmalade on my toast or bagel in the morning but do feel a bit let down by the average supermarket offerings. So having had some success with jam (plum) over the last few years we decided to venture into the world of marmalade. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision when I saw that Seville oranges, the bitter, bumpy skinned variety that are at the heart of a good marmalade had arrived in our local farm shop.

As "marmalade virgins" we decided to stick to a simple orange marmalade to begin with and looked through a few cook books and on the web for a good recipe. As with most things you want a recipe which looks straightforward and is fool-proof. Marmalade seems to have a variety recipes. Some recommend boiling the fruit whole in water and then taking the pith and pips out and slicing up the skins to give you shreds of peel. Other say simply squeeze the juice from the fruit into the water, then take out the pips and pith, this is where the pectin comes from, slice up the peel and then boil the lot together. Other recipes say split the marmalade making process over two days!

In the end we went for a Delia Smith recipe and produced a nice dark Oxford cut type marmalade. Flush with success we went back for another go and this time decided to try an orange, grapefruit and lemon variety. Again methods and quantities varied a lot and we simply decided to go with a mix and quantity of fruit which seemed sensible and used the Delia method. Boiling it to the correct setting point was a bit trial and error but having sampled the first batch this morning I can deem it a success. 

Both varieties have a nice clear taste and with the quantities we have I can avoid the marmalade shelves in the supermarket for some time.

So, fingers crossed for a good summer and we will hopefully have marmalade to add to the jam and chutneys in our Christmas hampers for friends and family.