This month’s recipe makes good use of oranges, lemons and limes and produces a tasty tart marmalade. If you cannot find any Seville oranges left in the shops or on the market, ordinary oranges will work just as well, but will taste less bitter.

Mixed Fruit Marmalade

You will need the following:

2 seville oranges
2 yellow grapefruit
2 limes
4 large unwaxed lemons
3kg sugar, warmed

This recipe makes about 4kg (9lb) of marmalade

  1. Wash any unwaxed fruit thoroughly, rinse well and dry. Weigh the fruit – you need around  1.6kg in total. Cut in half and squeeze to extract as much juice as possible, then pour through a sieve into a jug, reserving any pips in the sieve.
  2. Cut the spent fruit halves into quarters. Cut away the membranes and a thin layer of pith and tie these and the pips in a piece of muslin.
  3. Cut the peel into thin strips and tip into a preserving pan.
  4. Add all of the citrus fruit juices to the preserving pan, together with 3 litres cold water and the muslin bag. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 hours or until the peel is very, very tender and the liquid has reduced by about half. Skim off any scum during cooking and discard.
  5. Remove the muslin bag from the pan, squeezing well and allowing the juice to run back into the pan. Add the warmed sugar to the pan and stir until dissolved. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and bubble for about 10 to 15 minutes until the setting point is reached.
  6. Take the pan off the heat and remove any scum with a slotted spoon. Leave to stand for 15 minutes, then stir to distribute the peel.
  7. Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Rutland Preserves now stocks a full range of jars, bottles, lids and gift packaging, all very competitively priced on our website at www.rutlandpreserves.co.uk.