Lemon marmalade, not the prettiest in town but tastes delicious due to the quality of the lemons I was given, tree ripened and organically grown as they were.

There may be a pip or two in each jar of marmalade, but my argument is that this is a mark of authenticity.

There’s a couple of jars here of orange/lemon marmalade too, all that remains of a batch made a few days ago.

The recipe I’m providing here is a slight variation on my recipe in “A Year in a Bottle” or “Complete Preserves”.

The reason for the changes? In the original recipe the fruit is minced and it doesn’t have the juice of a lemon added.

Firstly, my mincer is broken at the moment, so I decided to use the thinner slicing blade of my food processor to cut the lemons.

This of course meant larger pieces than you would get from mincing, so I left the water/lemons mixture to soak overnight to soften the skins a little before cooking. After all, it’s very unpleasant to come across tough pieces of skin in any marmalade.

The addition of the lemon juice? With half a large lemon leftover from the weighing, it seemed practical to use its juice in the mixture.

I’ve increased the cooking time to account for the slightly larger pieces of fruit

(Incidentally, you can use any citrus fruit to make this, as per those jars of orange/lemon marmalade}.

So, all that being said, here is the recipe.

LEMON MARMALADE

500g lemons

1.5 litres cold water

1.5kg sugar

Juice 1 lemon

Method

Slice the lemons thinly and place in a large saucepan with the water, mix and leave to stand for several hours of overnight.

Transfer the mixture to a very large pot or jam pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Cook over medium heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the sugar and bring back to the boil. Cook over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes until setting point is reached.

Leave to stand 5 minutes then pour into warm sterilised jars and seal immediately.