Lemon Marmalade

On Thursday I decided to try my hand at making some lemon marmalade. I've made jams with my mum in the past and after seeing this recipe in Good Food magazine last month I thought I'd give it a go. All you need is 1kg of unwaxed lemons, 2kg granulated sugar, some water and a really big saucepan (a stock pot is ideal for this). The smell of lemons boiling away kept me awake whilst working analysing some data, it took around 2 and half hours to boil the lemons. They then had to be chopped up and then boiled with the sugar.

I was a bit worried that my marmalade wouldn't set as it seemed to be taking ages to reach the setting point and I didn't have anyone to ask for advice. It's definitely a judgement call deciding when your marmalade looks 'wrinkly' on a cold saucer. But luckily when I came to have some on my porridge the next day it had set beautifully .

Must make sure that if I make more jams in the future that I buy a proper ladle and a funnel and perhaps a shallower pan. My stockpot holds around 5 litres and is very deep so I had to pour the marmalade into a bowl and then spoon it into jars from there. As you can imagine my worktop got very sticky during this process but it was worth it.  I now have supply of marmalade that can be used as the basis for creating some yummy lemony bakes and also a jar for my mum because she showed me how to make jam in the first place.

And for a picture of some of my jars of marmalade, I made 8 in total in varying sizes after raiding the cupboards for empty jars.