ORANGES, LEMONS AND LIMES (1)

Lemon marmalade - Recipe 1 Thick cut marmalade

Early February and the markets in Spain are full of oranges and lemons

Oranges 3 kilos for 1 €uro

Lemons were slightly more expensive at 2 kilos for 1€ but at that price we had to bring some home. (Just a thought but will we be able to bring fruit from Spain into the UK after Brexit?)

Lemons were slightly more expensive at 2 kilos for 1€ but at that price we had to bring some home.  But what should we do with them?  We could slice them and freeze for use with Gin and Tonic - but that's a lot of G'n'T....and we have enough Preserved Lemons to last us well into 2018 and almost everyone on our Christmas gift list has already had a jar - so we decided to make lemon marmalade.

It's a long time since I made marmalade so I consulted a few recipes to get the proportions right but in the end the important rule to remember is 1lb of sugar to 1 pint of juice for us pre-metric generation (that's 450 grams of sugar to 600 mls of fruit juice). In the end I decided to make clear marmalade with peel, adapting a Lemon jelly recipe.

We had almost 3 kg lemons and as I also had a couple of spare limes, added these to bring the total to 3 kg.   I made 3 batches - the first thick cut marmalade and then one with shredded peel and the last with added ginger.

Ingredients

1 kg lemons
3.5 litres (6 pints) water
Granulated or Jam sugar

Method

Cut the lemons lengthwise into quarters. Remove any stalk and trim the ends. 

Remove any stalk and trim the ends. Remove the central core (I find this easy with a sharp pair of kitchen scissors).  Remove all the pips.  Keep all of the trimmings and central core that you have removed and put in a large preserving pan with 3 litres (5 pints) of water. Boil gently for about 1 - 2 hours then leave to cool.

Take the lemon quarters and cut the peel with any fruit attached into slices - as chunky or as fine as you want.

Place this peel in another saucepan with 600 mls (1 pint) of water and boil for about half an hour until the peel is soft.  Strain the peel, preserving the liquid which should be added to the preserving pan containing the pips and core.

When the large pan has been boiling for 1-2 hours,  pour contents into a jelly bag and strain  for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Discard the contents of the jelly bag and measure the quantity of strained liquid.

You can squeeze the jelly bag into the strained liquid - this will aid the setting but will result in a less clear marmalade. The juice will be cloudy at this time but it will gradually clear as it is boiled with the sugar

Put the strained peel into a large pan and pour in the measured liquid

Heat the pan gently and stir in the sugar - 1 lb / 450g to every 1 pint / 600mls juice - continue stirring until all the sugar has dissolved.  Heat to boiling and then fast boil until a set is obtained (probably about 15-20 minutes). Watch the pan all the time and adjust the heat as necessary - the marmalade could froth up and spill over if you are not careful.  Test for a set by putting a few drops on a cold,dry plate and see if a skin forms - if not boil a little longer and test again. 

When the setting point is reached, leave to cool a little for a few minutes and stir to ensure the peel is evenly distributed.  Pour into clean sterilised jars and then screw on the lids.

Leave to cool and set overnight.  Enjoy on toast with afternoon tea!

John Austin

Hove February 2018