I knew it was Seville oranges I needed and that January is the time to get them. I was thinking of trying the market but as Tesco had them I caved early and bought 2kg. The recipe uses 1 kg but I thought if I'm going to have all that faff I at least want a good few jars out of it, so made a double batch.
I won't recount the recipe or method precisely as Delia's is far superior to my tale of strife but let me tell you this: to squeeze the contents of 2kg of oranges and put all the 'bits and pips' in a muslin took me well over an hour and I wondered if I might be delirious with the zesty aroma. A bit fiddly does not cover it!
Although Delia said not to worry about some of the pith I fretted and gave each empty husk a little clean up with a teaspoon so I was satisfied they were as clean as could be.

A rather untidy muslin of bits! The juice went straight into a pan with the water. Next the peel needed chopping. You get thin cut or thick cut marmalade but mine I would call mixed cut and frankly it's lucky to all be cut at all because this took FOREVER too. I preferred to cut each half in half, press the which side flat on the board and pull the knife top to bottom in quick succession rather than scrunch up. Yes, I'm slovenly on finesse but that's tough, it will taste the same (even if texture may differ from one mouthful to another).
There was such a mountain of peel that even my large preserving pan was not big enough so I tipped some into a separate pan. I the big one the muslin was dangled in and tied up like a buoy and left to simmer gently for a couple of hours.

A fair amount of evaporation took place which pleasingly meant both pans could be put back into one. The bag of bits was taken out and squeezed. This was the worst part because in the video it looks easy and you scrape the goo off the bag with a spoon but when I did it the goo just went all over my hands and I felt like an idiot!
What remained of the goo went into the pan along with what looks like a monumental amount of sugar. Delia explained that as the sugar preserves it, the very bitter Seville oranges balance it out - of course sweeter oranges would make for a sweet jam instead. I was very cautious about making sure the sugar was all dissolved but well after an hour of checking, stirring and waiting, even my caution was thrown to the wind in favour of cracking on.
A rolling boil (I recounted it incorrectly to C as a roaring boil which does sound equally as dangerous) is reached my cranking it up to full whack and standing back as furiously swelling molten lava threatens to burn your face.
A stir every now and again to avoid burning it on the bottom of the pan. After an alarming 15 minutes the first test took place (not set) and I learned that you must take it off the heat during the test else what you have tested is 3 minutes behind what you have - that's where I've blundered before.
On the second test I was happy with the result, so dissolved a little butter around on the scum which pretty much all disappeared.
I ate most of the test sample before snapping.
The jar preparation took ages too, I wanted to remove old labels before washing and sterilising.

Then finally, finally, I poured it into jars and cleaned up. Start to finish it was 7 hours of my life. So yes, a bit fiddly and long winded but I do have 16 jars of amazing marmalade to eat and give as gifts. My Dad likes marmalade and always used to make me try it on toast , which I loathed but now it's something I love!

This was not cheap to make, in fact it cost a lot even without factoring my labour but I have made something pretty amazing.

If you want to make some for yourself you had better get your skates on and buy those oranges!!! Allow a good amount of time.
Have you made marmalade before or are you tempted to give it a go?

Take care,
Sophie

I edited these photographs a week or two ago but they date back to mid September when we took a couple of weeks away. It seems so long ago now and of course, the landscape will now look completely different but I wanted to share these anyway.

Dalemain Estate; mansion and historic gardens are near Penrith in Cumbria. We made sure we arrived in good time to get on the tour of the house as in my opinion, a well lead tour of anywhere is far superior to an absent-minded solo wander. It was an excellent tour by a knowledgeable and cheerful man who gave us a wonderful insight of the history and occupation of the Estate. As part of the tour we were ushered into the kitchen for a lovely little talk about the Marmalade Awards and got to smell the most delicious and hypnotic scent of marmalade being made on the stove. It was incredible! I want to make some of my own.

The gardens were a delight, I shared photographs of the flowers a couple of weeks ago. The field of grazing deer was the icing on the cake of a lovely visit.

Sophie

Just a friendly warning that this post purely contains flowers, so if you're not into pretty flowers then save your data and look away now. (and while you're at it have a little word with yourself; what kind of a person doesn't like pretty flowers, I mean COME ON!).

These utterly joyous flowers were to be found at Dalemain Gardens in Penrith whilst we were in Cumbria during mid September. In a future post I'll share some more about Dalemain House and Gardens more specifically but for today I'm sticking with the (many) pictures I took of all the colourful blooms I was lucky enough to see. Honestly, this place must have some gardeners who really know their onions (and flowers) to keep this looking so beautiful. I was amazed at just how many flowers there were and how alive the place felt. To say I loved it was an understatement.

Unfortunately, my knowledge of official and common names for plants is dire; even if I'm told what it is and am reminded, I STILL forget. I know a few and that seems to be my lot.

Colour and lots of it. Is there anything much more uplifting?

Sophie