The Bestest Ever Homemade Marmalade

Mmmmmm – how delicious do those oranges look! Well if you eat them raw then they're pretty disgusting as they're Seville Oranges and quite bitter – but they're probably the best orange ever to make marmalade with. They're only around for a few weeks of the year so get down to the grocers and grab yourself a basket – you won't be sorry. I try and make a big batch of marmalade every year to last me until they come around again.

I always thought making jam/marmalade sounded a bit daunting. All those stories from Grandma about boiling sugar and how terribly dangerous it all is. Nah – that's all rubbish, it's dead easy and you won't have ever tasted marmalade like it. It really is light years ahead of shop bought stuff.

So first things first – get to your grocers and grab yourself a kilogram of Seville Oranges. Chop them in half and squeeze all the juice out of them and then cut all the peel – chunky or fine – the choice is yours. Don't cut any of the pith off – that's the bit that contains most of the pectin which is what helps the marmalade set. Put everything in a bowl together with 2.5 pints of water and leave to soak overnight.

Transfer everything in to a large pan and bring to the boil. (Before you do anything else put a couple of saucers into the fridge now, you'll need them later.) Simmer for around 2 hours with the lid on or until the peel is soft – this will vary depending on how thick you've cut it. Just take a little bit out onto a chopping board and you should be able to squish it with your fingers really easily. Make sure you let it cool down first!

While you're simmering you'll need to sterilise some jars. There are various ways to do this – for ease you can put them in the dishwasher but I generally use my steamer – pop them in for half an hour.
OK – so after you've boiled for 2 hours you then need to add 75ml of lemon juice which is approx one lemon and 2kg of demerara sugar. Jeez – it's an awful lot of sugar – I didn't realise how much actually went into jam and marmalade – it's a bit of shocker! Stir the sugar to make sure it's fully dissolved and now you want to get your marmalade to a rolling boil.
It'll look a little like the shot above – lots of foamy bubbles. Don't stir when you get to this point as it'll reduce the temperature of your marmalade and take longer for it to reach setting point. You need to boil for approximately 20-25 minutes.

Now – this is the trickiest bit I think. Trying to work out if it's reached setting point or not. This is where the saucers in the fridge come in. After about 20-25 minutes take one of your saucers out and drop a little of the marmalade onto it, leave it to cool for a minute or so and then if it's reached setting point it should crinkle when you push it with your finger – like below. Can you see that?
Leave it for 10-15 minutes to cool down and then pot into your steralised jars. Hey presto home-made marmalade. I promise, you won't look back.