Thick Cut Orange Marmalade

There's nothing quite like Thick Cut Orange Marmalade made from oranges that have just been picked from the orange tree.

Fortunately I have a friend who has orange trees and had an abundance of oranges, so I decided  to try out 

this recipe that was given to me some years ago.

Once tried you will never want shop bought Orange Marmalade again.                             

                                                        Photo by shivery

Ingredients

• 4 Large Oranges
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 700 ml Water
• 600g Sugar

Method

1. Wash and slice the oranges in half.
2. With a metal spoon, scoop out the flesh, leaving the pith behind.
3. Put the flesh, juice and pips into a blender and blend until smooth.
4. Push through a fine sieve into a pan, disregarding the bits left in the sieve.
5. Remove the pith from the skins of 2 of the oranges.  I found the easiest way was to scrap the pith with a metal spoon.
6. Slice the skins thinly or a thick as you like them in your marmalade.
7. Add sliced skins to pan.
8. Pour in lemon juice and water.
9. Bring to the boil.
10. reduce to a simmer and cook for  1 1/2 hours or until the fluid has reduce by half and the rinds are soft.
11. Over a low heat add the sugar.
12. Stir until sugar has dissolved.
13. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
14. Mean while place a small plate in the refrigerator.
15. After 10 minutes cooking the marmalade, take the plate out of the refrigerator, spoon a little onto the cold plate.
16. Return plate to the refrigerator.
17. If the marmalade on the plates sets after about 2 minutes, then the marmalade is ready.
18. If not cook for a further 10 minutes and try again.
19. When cooked pour marmalade into sterilised jars.

This recipe should make around 600g of Marmalade, it's not worth making a bigger batch unless you are like me and give a lot away, because it has no preservatives, so doesn't keep a long as shop bought marmalade.

Thick Cut Orange Marmalade