Pam Corbin's Seville orange marmalade.

- Seville orange recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Food and drink | Life and style | The Guardian:
This is my friend Pam Corbin's recipe for classic marmalade from River Cottage Handbook No 2: Preserves. If you want to add whisky, brandy or Cointreau, stir in about 50ml just before putting the marmalade into jars. Makes five to six 450g jars.

1kg Seville oranges
75ml lemon juice
2kg demerara sugar

Scrub the oranges, remove the buttons at the top of the fruit, then cut them in half.
Squeeze out the juice and reserve.
With a sharp knife, slice the peel, pith and all, into thin, medium or chunky strips, depending on your preference. Gather up the seeds and tie them in a square of muslin.
Put the peel and pip bag into a bowl with the orange juice, cover with 2.5 litres of water and leave to soak overnight, or for up to 24 hours.

Transfer the lot to a preserving pan or large saucepan, bring to a boil, then simmer slowly, partially covered, until the peel is tender – this should take about two hours, by which time the contents of the pan will have reduced by about a third. Remove and discard the bag of pips.

If you don't have a sugar thermometer, put a saucer in the freezer to chill.
Add the lemon juice and sugar to the pan, and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
Raise the heat and bring to a rolling boil.
Boil rapidly until the setting point is reached, after about 25 minutes – a sugar thermometer should read 104C or a dollop of marmalade dropped on to the chilled saucer should wrinkle when pushed with your finger.
Remove from the heat, leave to cool for eight to 10 minutes (a little longer if the peel is very chunky), then stir gently to disperse any scum. Pour into warm, sterilised jars and seal immediately.
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Strawberry Jam.

This is a fantastic recipe taken from Pam Corbin's, 'Preserves' book.
It follows a golden jam rule my granny used, A pound of sugar for every pound of fruit.
As strawberries are low in pectin, adding some jam sugar helps attain a great setting point without affecting the strawberries delicious flavour.

Ikg strawberries, hulled, large ones, halved and quartered.
500g granulated sugar.
450g jam sugar with added pectin
150ml lemon juice

Put 200g of the strawnberries into your preserving pan alongside an equal amount of sugar and using a potato masher, cruish to a pulp.
Place the pan on a low heat and when the fruity mixture warms add the rest of your strawberries.
Gently bring this to simmering boil, using a spoon to agitate the bottom of the pan,this prevents the fruit from sticking.
Simmer the mixture for 5 minutes to allow the strawberries to soften a little.

Next add the remaining sugar and the jam sugar.
Stir the mixture gently to prevent the sugar sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan.
When the sugar has disolved add the lemon juice.
Turn up the heat and when the mixture reaches full boil, continue boiling for 8-9 minutes.
Then test for setting point.

Remove from the heat and, if the surface is scummy, stir gently until the scum has dispersed.
Pot and seal.
Use within 12 months.

Early rhubarb jam.

Early rhubarb jam | River Cottage:
This is one of Pam's favourite ways to capture the earthy flavour of rhubarb.
It's a plant that contains very little pectin so the jam definitely requires an extra dose.
This light, soft jam is good mixed with yoghurt or spooned over ice cream, or you can warm it and use to glaze a bread and butter pudding after baking.

Method
Wipe and trim the rhubarb (1kg) and cut into 2–2.5cm chunks.
Pour a layer of sugar (900g) into the bottom of a preserving pan, then add a layer of rhubarb.
Repeat, continuing until all the sugar and rhubarb are used, finishing with a layer of sugar.
Pour juice of one orange over the top.

Cover and leave for at least an hour or two – preferably overnight.
This draws the juice from the rhubarb and the resulting syrup helps keep the rhubarb chunks whole when boiled.

Gently bring the mixture to the boil, stirring carefully without crushing the rhubarb pieces.
Boil rapidly for 5–6 minutes, then test for setting point.
Remove from the heat and rest for 5 minutes before pouring into warm, sterilised jars.

Seal immediately, use within 12 months.

I have about 500g of fresh chopped rhubarb. Recipe makes around 800 ml of jam.
Variations
Add 100g chopped crystallised stem ginger to the fruit, omitting the orange juice.

Sharper-tasting maincrop rhubarb can also be used for this recipe – try adding a few young angelica leaves or a handful of fragrant rose petals.

Fruit, pectin, acid and sugar are the four ingredients required to produce the magic result known as a set' - ie, the right wobbling, spreadable consistency.
In July we have the soft fruit, the strawberries, raspberries and the currants, and then later things put on their thicker coats like apples do, marrows do and onions do.
The hedgerow glut is in September and then there's marmalade oranges from Seville that arrive in early January and rhubarb in January and February.
I always say that it is rhubarb that links the preserving season.
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