Mr Radcliffe's Preserves
Marmalade
| I started marmalade making seriously in about 1985. The early stuff
was very chunky and dark. There is a dark and fearsome looking '93
and '94 in the cupboard at the moment. It seems to darken quite quickly with age. I have some 2000 which is now darkening (in early 2003) The chunky recipe from Practical Cookery [3] (with the lemon but with 5 pints of water) was the only one used until 2002. Recipe here Two lots could just be fitted in one pan. Quite often two pans would be used at once. The method is a simple as possible. See Bull 21 Method 2
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| 2002 Due to popular demand a very successful light coloured Three Fruit Marmalade was made for the first time. The recipe was from Bulletin 21 [1] Method 2, Recipe 6 but with only 3 lemons not 4. A Seville Orange was made to [1] Recipe 1. The peel was sliced very thinly and it also came out very light. The recipe says the juice of 2 lemons so possibly that and the thin peel made it set quickly.
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2003 Three Fruit as [1] Recipe
6 increased by 50% (Pan 80% full) |
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2004 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade  I made a slight variation on the 2003 Seville using just the lemon juice and even less water. The recipe was :- 4.2 lbs of Sevilles (from Bert Whites in Luton market) Method 2 was used with the fruit cut very fine. After adding the sugar the mix filled about threequarters of the pan, which was ideal. I only had to boil for about threequarters of an hour and the result was 17 jars of good looking very light coloured marmalade. It tasted good too. Probably the best batch to date! Click the picture for a slideshow.
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Cut mostly quite fine. Hardly any pips from any of the fruit.
2007 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade
I didn't make any marmalade in 2005 and 2006, there was plenty in the cupboard and oranges were difficult to find.
The 2007 batch was similar to the 2004 batch.
2008 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade
Ruth got the oranges this year from Stopsley and a batch was made to the 2004 receipe.
4lbs 4 oz oranges
2009 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade
A batch made on 26th January as 2004. 19 jars. Very good.
Tesco fruit?
2010 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade
20th January. 5lb oranges from Tesco. As 2004 recipe. Fruit cut up fine and left to stand in water until next evening. Pan very full. Boiled rather gently for about an hour and a half. 18 and a half jars. Set well.
2011 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade
23rd January 3 kilos of oranges from Tescos plus some very juicy lemons.
2004 recipe, method 2. 4.5lbs of oranges, 2 lemons with 4 pints water 9lb sugar. Used a little bit of lemon rind this year. Boiled friut for an hour, unfortunately caught a little on bottom so some bits. Boiled for only 45mins after adding sugar, setting in pan. Tastes good, 17 jars.
Maybe some thick cut with rest of oranges. Ruth recommends some 2 tablespoons teacle and one of whisky at end.
29 January Whisky Marmalade.
Used the last few aranges (1lb 7oz) to make some some thick cut marmalade. No lemon. Had to use twice as much water than for bigger batches because fruit wasn't covered. Unfortunately only added the same weight in sugar instead of twice as much. A tablespoon of teacle darkened it but the generous dash if whisky is not very noticable. One made three and a half jars. Set well in spite of missing lemon, bit tangy!
2012 Seville Thin Cut Marmalade 22nd Jan
Very good fresh oranges from Sainsbury's 2 x 1.5kg
4.75lb of fruit
2 Lemons
4.5 pts water
9.5lbs sugar
Cut very thin as usual, added peel from 1 lemon, which was a bit more than last year.
Set very quickly, hardly any boiling and very little scum.
18 jars plus a scumjar. Tastes very good.
2lbs of oranges left.
2013 at least one batch
2014 29th January 1 batch thin cut. 4lb 6 oz fruit 16 jars plus two pots. Very good.
15th February. Used rest of oranges to make a half batch of thin cut marmalade. 7 jars plus the scum jar (which turned out to be just as good as the rest) Good flavour.
2015 January 1 batch thin cut. Ran out in December!
2016 9 January 1 batch thin cut to ususal recipe. 1.975kg friut, made 18 jars of various sizes. Set very quickly, good light colour.
Must have made a second smaller batch because we still have some in Jan 2017!
2017 January 15th 1 batch as usual - 2kgm friut. Pan quite full. 17 jars. Set quickly clear. Probably tarter than last year.
Only one batch this year.
2018 One batch this year.
Began to fear a shortage until we found some 2017 lurking at the back of the cupboard.
2019 Made two batches.
First batch was standard recipe with 2kgm of fruit producing 17 jars of fine looking marmalade.
Used the remainder of the oranges (860gm) two weeks later plus a chopped up lemon came to 980gms. Made 9 jars. We called it Clematine Marmalade. You can taste the lemon.
2020 One batch of the usual thin cut using 1kgm of oranges to the usual recipe. 9 jars.
Towards the end of 2020, amongs a few other disasters, we also ran out of Marmalade. Two jars in the posts from Helen saved the day, plus another for Christmas.
2021 In order to avoid the catastrophee of 2020 I made two batches of the usual thin cut Marmalade . Puchased 4kg of Sevilles from Dollies barn and made the two batches a week apart to the usual recipe on the 16tth and 23rd January.
Made 16 and a half jars from each batch. Should last us a while. First batch tasted a bit sweeter than the second possible becasue the oranges in the second batch were greener.
Even got round to reorganising the cupboard in the corner, threw out a lot of very old redcurrent jelly and varous other relics. Now marmalade on top, chutney below. Kept a 87 plum and a couple of 91s though.
This document maintained by Chris@Radcliffefamily.net.
Last updated
25 January, 2021
Material Copyright © 2003-2010 CJR