Ultimate Seville orange marmalade Cooking time: Prep:1 hr, 15 mins - 1 hr, 30 mins Cook: 2 hrs, 30 mins Makes

about 4.5kg/10lb The original, and classic, English marmalade, as made famous by Paddington Bear Ingredients 1.3kg Seville oranges 2 lemons, juice only 2.6kg preserving or granulated sugar Method Put the whole oranges and lemon juice in a large preserving pan and cover with 2 litres/4 pints water - if it does not cover the fruit, use a smaller pan. If necessary weight the oranges with a heat-proof plate to keep them submerged. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for around 2 hours, or until the peel can be easily pierced with a fork. Warm half the sugar in a very low oven. Pour off the cooking water from the oranges into a jug and tip the oranges into a bowl. Return cooking liquid to the pan. Allow oranges to cool until they are easy to handle, then cut in half. Scoop out all the pips and pith and add to the reserved orange liquid in the pan. Bring to the boil for 6 minutes, then strain this liquid through a sieve into a bowl and press the pulp through with a wooden spoon - it is high in pectin so gives marmalade a good set. Pour half this liquid into a preserving pan. Cut the peel, with a sharp knife, into fine shreds. Add half the peel to the liquid in the preserving pan with the warm sugar. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, for about 10 minutes, then bring to the boil and bubble rapidly for 15- 25 minutes until setting point is reached. Take pan off the heat and skim any scum from the surface. (To dissolve any excess scum, drop a small knob of butter on to the surface, and gently stir.) Leave the marmalade to stand in the pan for 20 minutes to cool a little and allow the peel to settle; then pot in sterilised jars, seal and label. Repeat from step 3 for second batch, warming the other half of the sugar first. Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2002 Tip Make it your own Fresh ginger marmalade: Peel 100g/4oz fresh root ginger and slice thinly. Tie in two muslin bags and bruise with a rolling pin to release its natural juices. Add one bag to pan at step 3, once sugar has dissolved. Continue as before with the second ginger bag and the second batch; remove ginger just before potting.

TRADITIONAL SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE Prep time: 50 minCook time: 2 hrs 50; makes six 350 ml capacity jars = 2.1l INGREDIENTS 900 g seville oranges 1 lemons 1.8 kg granulated sugar, (to speed the dissolving, this can be warmed in the oven) METHOD 1. You will need a preserving pan or a large, heavy-based saucepan; a 23 cm square of muslin (or gauze); some string; a funnel; and six 350 ml capacity jars, sterilised. 2. Begin by measuring 2.25 litres water into a preserving pan, then cut the lemon and oranges in half and squeeze the juice out of them. Add the juice to the water and place the pips and any bits of pith that cling to the squeezer on the square of muslin (laid over a dish or cereal bowl first). 3. Now cut the orange peel into quarters with a sharp knife, and then cut each quarter into thinnish shreds. As you cut, add the shreds to the water and any pips or spare pith you come across should go on to the muslin. The pith contains a lot of pectin so don't discard any and don't worry about any pith and skin that clings to the shreds - it all gets dissolved in the boiling. 4. Now tie the pips and pith up loosely in the muslin to form a little bag, and tie this on to the handle of the pan so that the bag is suspended in the water. Then bring the liquid up to simmering point and simmer gently, uncovered, for 2 hours or thereabouts until the peel is completely soft (test a piece carefully by pressing it between your finger and thumb). Meanwhile, chill the saucers in the freezer compartment of the fridge. 5. Next, remove the bag of pips and leave it to cool on a saucer. Then pour the sugar into the pan and stir it now and then over a low heat, until all the crystals have dissolved (check this carefully, it's important). Now increase the heat to very high and squeeze the bag of pips over the pan to extract all of the sticky, jelly-like substance that contains the pectin. As you squeeze you'll see it ooze out. You can do this by placing the bag between two saucers or using your hands. Then stir or whisk it into the rest. 6. As soon as the mixture reaches a really fast boil, start timing. Then after 15 minutes spoon a little of the marmalade on to one of the cold saucers from the fridge, and let it cool back in the fridge. You can tell - when it has cooled - if you have a 'set' by pushing the mixture with your little finger: if it has a really crinkly skin, it is set. If not, continue to boil the marmalade and give it the same test at about 10-minute intervals until it does set. 7. After that remove the pan from the heat (if there's a lot of scum, most of it can be dispersed by stirring in half a teaspoon of butter, and the rest can be spooned off). Leave the marmalade to settle for 20 minutes. 8. In the meantime, the jars should be washed, dried and heated in a moderate oven for 5 minutes. Pour the marmalade, with the aid of a funnel or a ladle, into the jars, cover with waxed discs and seal while still hot. Label when cold and store in a dry, cool, dark place. Seville orange marmalade

Seville orange marmalade I made two batches this year. One with organic fruit, the other not. The flavour of the organic one shone most brilliantly and took less time to reach setting point. This is enough to fill about 5 or 6 normal jam jars. 12 Seville oranges 2 lemons 1.25kg unrefined golden granulated sugar Using a small, particularly sharp kitchen knife, score four lines down each fruit from top to bottom, as if you were cutting the fruit into quarters. Let the knife cut through the peel but without piercing the fruit. Cut each quarter of peel into fine shreds (or thicker slices if you like a chunkier texture). Squeeze each of the peeled oranges and lemons into a jug, removing and reserving all the pulp and pips. Make the juice up to 4 litres with cold water, pouring it into the bowl with the shredded peel. You may need more than one bowl here. Tie the reserved pith, squeezed-out orange and lemon pulp and the pips in muslin bag and push into the peel and juice. Set aside in a cold place and leave overnight. The next day, tip the juice and shredded peel into a large stainless steel or enamelled pan (or a preserving pan for those lucky enough to have one) and push the muslin bag down under the juice. Bring to the boil then lower the heat so that the liquid continues to simmer merrily. It is ready when the peel is totally soft and translucent. This can take anything from 40 minutes to a good hour-and-ahalf, depending purely on how thick you have cut your peel. (This time, mine took 45 minutes with the organic oranges, just over an hour with the others.) Once the fruit is ready, lift out the muslin bag and leave it in a bowl until it is cool enough to handle. Add the sugar to the peel and juice and turn up the heat, bringing the marmalade to a rolling boil. Squeeze every last bit of juice from the reserved muslin bag into the pan. Skim off any froth that rises to the surface. (If you don't your preserve will be cloudy.) Leave at a fast boil for 15 minutes. Remove a tablespoon of the preserve, put it on a plate, and pop it into the fridge for a few minutes. If a thick skin forms on the surface of the refrigerated marmalade, then it is ready and you can switch the pan off. If the tester is still liquid, then let the marmalade boil for longer. Test every 10 to 15 minutes. Some mixtures can take up to 50 minutes to reach setting consistency. Ladle into the sterilised pots and seal immediately.

Diana's recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade 3kg Seville oranges 3 lemons 4.5 pints of water (2.55l) 3kg of sugar Makes approximately 14 pots. Day one Scrub and rinse all the fruit. Diana makes her marmalade in three batches. So, for one batch, take 1kg Seville oranges and one lemon, and put them in a pressure cooker with 1.5 pints (0.85l) of water and cook at 10lbs of pressure for 15 minutes. If you dont have a pressure cooker, then boil in a saucepan for 'over an hour, until the fruit is cooked through, says Diana. Fish the fruit out of the saucepan with a slotted spoon. When its cool enough to handle, cut them in half. Scrape out the flesh, pith and pips and put it all in a saucepan with the original boiling water. Set the peel to one side. Boil the panful of fruit matter for five minutes and then pour into a muslin bag suspended over a jam kettle or other large pan. Add some of the sugar to the liquid in the jam kettle and stir to dissolve. Repeat twice more until all the fruit has been prepared. Cut the peel into fine shreds and add to the jam kettle. Leave to strain overnight. Day two Add the remainder of the sugar to the jam kettle. Put over a low heat and stir until dissolved. Bring to the boil until setting point is reached. If you are using a jam thermometer, you need to boil for about half an hour after the correct temperature is reached. Either way, the marmalade is ready when it passes the wrinkle test: drop a small amount of marmalade in a saucer and pop it in the fridge for five minutes. If the surface wrinkles when you push it with your finger, its ready. Pour into hot dry jars and cover at once with discs of greaseproof paper soaked in wine vinegar and screw the top on the jar immediately.

1 pt = 0.56826 l