Marmalade

On Tuesday we went into Hebden to buy Seville oranges from Holt's (we'd already checked that they had some in).  From there we made a quick trip up to Old Town to visit Julie, where she showed us a book on marmalade making that has been well used in her family.  The original publication dates from the 1920s but this copy is from the 1970s, I believe.

This was a first attempt at marmalade making by both of us.  We'd been inspired, partly, by the home made marmalade given to us last summer by other friends, Betty and John.

Mainly we followed Betty's recipe, which she says came from the Good Housekeeping Cookery book of 1944.  This involved juicing the oranges and cutting up the peel first, before heating.

Julie's book (7 pages of which I'd photographed with my iPhone) went into more detail about methods and recipes which helped us to understand the process.

 I found two little muslin bags for the pulp and pips.   I think they started life as nightdress cases, though they'd never been used as such.

3lb of oranges and twice as much sugar made 11 jars of marmalade of varying sizes.

Here's John trying it (not quite as good as Betty's).  Since then we've finished the first jar and also made another batch of 11 jars, this time using some dark Muscavado sugar and some whisky.