Recipe:Lemon marmalade

Ingredients

• 680g organic lemons
• 1.7 litres water
• 1.4kg preserving or granulated sugar

Method

Wash the fruit and place in a large pan with the water. Cover tightly, bring to the boil and simmer gently until the lemons are very soft and easily pierced with knife. Check after 1½ hours, but allow up to 2½ for them to become soft enough.

Transfer the fruit to a bowl, leaving the cooking liquid in its pan. Once the lemons are cool enough to handle, slice in half and with a spoon, scrape out the pulp, pips and most of the pith into a bowl. Return these to the pan, making sure that the pulp is thoroughly mashed up. Bring back to the boil and reduce by half before straining into a jam pan.

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2. To sterilise your jam jars wash in warm soapy water, then rinse and place in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until dry.

Meanwhile, finely slice all the fruit skins into thin strips (or chunks) and add to the jam pan. Clip on the thermometer and return to the boil. Stir in the sugar until it has completely dissolved, then bring the marmalade up to the boil and allow it to reach jam setting point ­ 105°C ­ which should take about 10 minutes once the sugar has melted. Skim as necessary, then leave to settle for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to distribute the peel.

Pour into warm dry sterilised jam jars and cover with paper discs, seal and label. Store in a cool, dark place.