Three-Fruit Marmalade

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large preserving pan or heavy-bottomed stockpot (at least 6 litres)
• •Square of muslin and kitchen string
• •Sharp knife and chopping board
• •Sugar thermometer (optional but useful)
• •6 to 7 sterilised 450g jam jars with lids
• •Wide-mouthed funnel (helpful for filling)
• •Small plate, kept in the freezer for the set test

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the fruit

   Wash all the fruit in warm water and dry it. Cut each piece in half across the equator and squeeze out the juice into a large preserving pan or your biggest, heaviest pot. Use a spoon to scoop out the pulp and pips from the spent halves and tip those into a square of muslin. The pips and the white pith are where the pectin lives, so don't be tempted to skip the muslin bag. Tie it tightly with string and drop it into the pan.

   Unwaxed fruit is worth seeking out. The peel is the whole point of marmalade, and you don't want a film of edible wax going into the jar.
2. 2

   Slice the peel

   Now the slow bit. Take the empty fruit halves and slice the peel as finely or as thickly as you like, working through the pile while something good plays in the background. Thin shreds give a delicate, almost translucent marmalade. Thicker chunks give you the kind that sits on toast like a small statement. Your kitchen, your rules. Add the sliced peel to the pan with the juice and the muslin bag.

3. 3

   Soak overnight

   Pour in the cold water. The peel will float about, looking unpromising. Cover the pan with a clean tea towel and leave it on the counter overnight. This soak softens the peel and starts to draw the pectin out of the pith and pips. You can skip it if you're impatient, but the marmalade will be the better for the wait.

4. 4

   Simmer until tender

   The next day, bring the pan to a gentle simmer, lid off, and let it cook for around two hours. You're waiting for the peel to go completely soft. Press a shred between your finger and thumb. It should give way without any resistance, almost melting. If it still has any chew at all, keep going. Undercooked peel will stay tough in the jar and there's no fixing it later. The kitchen will smell of bright, bitter citrus the whole time. There are worse ways to spend a winter morning.

5. 5

   Squeeze the muslin bag

   Lift out the muslin bag with tongs and let it cool for a few minutes on a plate. When you can handle it, squeeze it hard over the pan with the back of a spoon. A thick, jellyish liquid will come out. That's the pectin. Get every drop. This is what makes the marmalade set.

6. 6

   Warm the sugar and the jars

   While the peel is finishing, set the oven to 140C/120C fan. Tip the sugar into a roasting tin and warm it in the oven for ten minutes. Warm sugar dissolves quickly and stops the boil losing its momentum. At the same time, wash your jars in hot soapy water, rinse them well, and let them dry in the same oven. Sterilised, warm, ready to go.

7. 7

   Add the sugar

   Tip the warmed sugar into the pan with the cooked peel and juice. Stir over a low heat until every grain of sugar has dissolved. Run the back of the spoon along the bottom of the pan. If it feels gritty at all, keep stirring. Sugar that hasn't dissolved properly will crystallise in the jar later. Patience here pays you back.

8. 8

   Boil hard for the set

   Now turn the heat right up and bring the marmalade to a rolling boil. Don't stir it now. Let it bubble furiously for fifteen to twenty minutes. The colour will deepen from pale gold to amber, the bubbles will get smaller and louder, and the whole thing will start to look like marmalade rather than sugary citrus soup. Trust your nose. It knows before you do.

   If you have a sugar thermometer, the setting point is 104 to 105C. If you don't, the cold plate test in the next step is just as reliable.
9. 9

   Test for the set

   Put a small plate in the freezer before you start boiling. To test, take the pan off the heat (this matters, otherwise you overshoot) and drop a teaspoon of marmalade onto the cold plate. Wait thirty seconds, then push it gently with your finger. If the surface wrinkles and the marmalade holds its shape behind your fingertip, it's done. If it's still loose and runny, put the pan back on the heat for another three or four minutes and test again. The first time you see the wrinkle, you'll never forget it.

10. 10

    Rest, pot, and seal

    Stir in the small knob of butter if you're using it. It dissolves any foam on top and gives you a clearer marmalade. Let the pan sit off the heat for ten minutes. This rest is important, because it lets the peel settle through the syrup rather than floating to the top of every jar. Then ladle into the warm sterilised jars, right to the brim, and seal immediately with the lids. Label them when they're cool. Three-fruit, the date, the year. You'll be glad in November when you're rummaging through the cupboard.

Chef Tips

• •The peel must be properly soft before you add the sugar. Once the sugar goes in, the peel stops cooking and will stay exactly as tender (or as tough) as it was the moment the sugar hit the pan. Don't rush this stage. Squeeze a shred between your fingers. It should collapse without any resistance at all.
• •Don't double the recipe. Marmalade in big batches struggles to reach setting point because the volume is too great for the heat to drive off the water quickly enough. If you want to make a lot, do two separate batches one after the other. They'll set better and cook faster.
• •Store the jars somewhere cool and dark. A proper marmalade keeps for a year, sometimes two, and the flavour deepens over time. Once a jar is opened, it lives in the fridge and doesn't last long because you'll find yourself eating it straight from the spoon at midnight.

Advance Preparation

• •The fruit can be juiced, sliced, and soaked the night before, which spreads the work over two mornings rather than one long afternoon.
• •Sealed properly into sterilised jars, three-fruit marmalade keeps for at least a year in a cool, dark cupboard. The flavour mellows and deepens after the first month.
• •Once a jar is opened, store it in the fridge and use within six weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 20g)