blood orange, lemon and pink grapefruit marmalade recipe

A wonderful, rich, tart marmalade.

makes about 4-5 x 450g jars

• 1.5kg blood oranges
• 2 pink grapefruits
• 2 lemons
• 1 teaspoon salt
• About 2kg sugar with pectin

Drop the whole oranges, lemons and grapefruits into boiling water and give them a bit of a scrub to de-wax. Put them into a heavy-based stainless-steel pan, cover with 3 litres of water and add the salt. Put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour, turning the fruit once halfway through the cooking time. The fruit should be soft.

Strain, reserving the liquor, and allow the fruit to cool completely. When cold, cut all the fruit in half and scoop the flesh and pips into a metal sieve set over a bowl. Reserve the rinds.

Using a metal spoon, stir and push the flesh through the sieve. Discard the membrane and pips. Cut the rinds into chunky strips, and then into pieces of the size you want.

Add the rind to the sieved pulp and weigh it. For every 450g, measure 450ml of the cooking liquor (if you don’t have enough, make up the amount with water). Mix together, then weigh the mixture again and for every 450g, measure out 400g sugar.

Put everything into the heavy-based stainless-steel pan. Heat slowly, stirring all the time, to dissolve the sugar completely. Increase the heat and bring to a rapid boil, then boil for 30–40 minutes, stirring only occasionally.

Pull the pan off the heat and test for setting point. You could also use a jam thermometer here: when it reaches 105–106°C the marmalade will set.

When ready, take the marmalade off the heat and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Stir once before pouring into dry, warm, sterilised jars. Cover with a wax disc, seal immediately and label with the date. This marmalade will keep for several years.

This recipe featured in Sarah Raven's 2015 Calendar.