Marmalade alchemy

Two-and-a-half inches of snow overnight. Still blizzarding down first thing. My plans for the weekly shop were immediately cancelled. What better excuse could Jen and I possibly need for staying in and making our second and final batch of 2021 marmalade?

But then a text message from Yorkshire Water: problems with the water supply, which might go off or become discoloured. So much for marmalade! But they fixed the problem soon enough, so Jen and I set to work on our second batch.

Marmalade
2021 marmalade (batch 2)

The secret with marmalade is to boil the orange-sugar-liquid mix until it reaches precisely 105°C. 104°C is not enough. 106°C is too much. Trust me, we’ve worked on this. Once you remove the pan from the heat, you should let it cool for 20 minutes or so before pouring it into jars. This leads to a much move even distribution of orange-peel shreds in the final product.

Marmalade isn’t an art; it’s alchemy.


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