marmalade and mums.

Still not sure what I'm doing here, but I equate it to making marmalade. When it goes wrong I ring my mum, when this goes wrong I email Alana...
As for making marmalade, this is the season for Seville oranges used for making that wonderful preserve. I spent all day yesterday making pounds of the stuff.
I started on Tuesday when I de-pipped and sliced kilos of oranges and put them in a large stainless steel preserving pan with loads of water to soak overnight. This softens them prior to cooking. In fact I had to leave them for two nights as I was working on Wednesday and was too wrecked to start into making marmalade when I got back from work.
So, yesterday I started the cooking process, starting very gently so that the tough skins cook simmering then until they are soft then, simmer till half the water is gone. That, according to the book takes an hour.

That's where it all started to fall apart.

I bailed out a couple of pints thinking I had put in too much water then I added the sugar and heated gently til' it was dissolved then boiled it, the book says for 15 mins.
Well it wouldn't set, of course... so eventually after a couple of hours I was left with 6 jars of orange stodge... not the usual sort of marmalade that you get in the shops.

At this stage I rang my mum....

She said to tip it all back into the pan, add water and sugar and reboil it. I moaned a bit... but duly did what she said and after an hour or so I had 12 lbs of great marmalade....

Thank goodness for mums!