Making Marmalade

I've never made marmalade before but I do like it rather a lot so decided that I really should give it a go.
So I did.

Yesterday I searched for, and found, a very simple recipe.

I got 8 oranges from the garden.
Washed them and then peeled the 'skin' off them with a potato peeler. After that I sliced it up.

Then you cut up the oranges into small bits and put them and the cut up peel in a large pan. Put in enough water to cover them. It took 4 cups to cover mine.

 Bring to boil, then simmer for around an hour until the oranges are soft.
 Then add the same amount of sugar as water. So in my case it was 4 cups.
 Bring to boil again, then simmer for ages. Mine took over an hour until it reached a set.

See, super simple, and it tastes amazing.
 BUT - because you leave all the pith on, the marmalade isn't that lovely clear jelly that I would like.

So, today I thought I'd try something else. And I completely messed around with a recipe I found in an old preserving book.
It's WAY more time consuming.

Here's what I did

6 oranges and one lemon
Half them all and juice. I have a juicer so I used that - it worked a treat as it removed a lot of the pith as well.
Put the juice in the fridge for later.

Put the pith and pips into some muslin and make a wee bag. Put this, and the citrus shells  into a pan with enough water to cover. Mine took 4 cups again. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for around an hour, or until skins are nice and soft. Check it regularly, as I found I had to add more water.

After the hour, tip all the ingredients into a collander and squish them all down to extract as much liquid out of them as you can. ( I got about half a cup!) Scoop out any remaining pith from the shells, with a spoon.

Using a sharp knife slice the peel into thick or thin strands, which ever you prefer. Put these back into the pan, with the orange juice you squeezed earlier, and the liquid you got from the pan. When I did this is looked like hardly any liquid so here's where I veered completely off the recipe! I added 3 cups of water! Then got scared and wished I hadn't because now it looked too watery! But it was too late!

 

Add 4 cups of sugar and bring to the boil. Boil gently until you have a set. Test regularly. Mine took around an hour (!!) to reach a set, but it tasted amazing! I really thought it wasn't going to work and that I'd added in too much water. But there you go!

Once you've reached your set, let it sit for 10 minutes or so, off the heat. Give it a wee stir around to redistribute the peel, then bottle.
This made less than yesterday. but as you can see, its much clearer, and looks like marmalade is supposed to!

So, even though this recipe took way longer I'd do it again every time. ( and yes, I like my marmalade chunky!)