THE EXQUISITE MARMELADE

 INGREDIENTS

1.2kg sevilla oranges

1, 5 unwaxed lemons, (so one and a half lemons, not one kilo and a half ok?!)

2kg granulated sugar, half dark and half lightish. but by all means quality sugar!

2.2 litres of water

so, 

put the water in the pot, 
halve the oranges and lemons, squeeze the juice into a jug and pour into the water in the pot.
take the pips and pith (that the stuff that's not juice that results from juicing the fruit) and put into a muslin (not muslim duh!) bag or a muslin square tied up with string and throw it in the pot.
cut up as thin as you like the orange and lemon peel and add it all to the pot. 

bring the whole pot to boil and reduce to a low simmer for two to three hours. we save an hour by actually starting the boiling process WHILE still cutting up the peels, because that takes forever and is not extremely pleasant or interesting and will not give you any kind of climax or feeling of accomplishment; well maybe that last point isn't quite true. 

once the peel is soft, after those two to three hours, remove the muslim bag and put it on the side until it is cool enough to hold in your hand. now if you're some kind of masochistic challenging person, this might be earlier than for a normal person, so I'm not sure I can take that into account. 

anyway, while its cooling add the sugar to the pot that is still simmering softly, stirring all the time until the sugar is dissolved. then the squeeze the bag of pips over the pot and extract as much of the squishy, slimy stuff from the bag as you possibly can. you might finally at this point, feel some kind of guilty pleasure doing this, so feel free to close your eyes while doing so, but still paying enough attention to remaining above the pot. 

stir it well, and turn up the heat to bring it back to a volcanic boil for about 20mn while testing every few minutes for achieving the right setting consistency. you'll need about 8 normal sized jarrrrrs for this recipe. you'll need to sterilize them first, adding to the panic of these last moments. its good to take a wide milk jug to put it into the pots.