Marmalade Days

Believe it or not, after all the  years I have been cooking, this is the first time I have attempted to make marmalade!  It always seemed a bit pointless when you could buy such great marmalade.  But then, every year my friends would all start to discuss the merits of different ways of making it - do you cut the oranges before you cook them or after, is caster sugar as good as granulated, do you keep it pure, or add limes or even grapefruit?  And even before the Seville oranges were available there was talk on the radio as to when they may arrive - a bit like the Beaujolia run - who can get them here first!
So, as a complete novice I felt I should follow the direction of somebody else, and started searching through my hundreds of cookery books to find who had written what I thought may be the tastiest recipe.  But as always in this instance, I started to go 'off-piste', dreaming up my own ideas (the problem with being a recipe writer is that you never want to follow a recipe written by somebody else!).
And not content with that, I also decided half-way through the process to try two versions!  Both are equally delicious.







Joy's Marmalade!
This makes both types - straight marmalade and ginger marmalade.


2kg Seville oranges
5 litres water
approx 3kg sugar
6 knobs stem ginger, diced


1.  Slice the oranges as thickly as you like them, remove the pips and pithy bit from the middle of the orange then place the slices in very large pan.  cover with water and simmer for 2 hours (until the orange rind is tender).
2.  Ladle the mixture into two non-metallic bowls and leave to cool, covered, overnight.
3.  Ladle the mixture into two separate large pans, adding a ladle of sugar for every ladle of fruit and liquid.  In one of the pans add the diced stem ginger.
4.  Bring to the boil and simmer again for around 1 hour, or until it has reached setting point.  To test for this spoon a little onto a plate and leave it for one minute.  If it wrinkles when you push it gently with your finger it is ready.
5.  Pour into sterilised jars and cover with wax paper until cool.