my homemade marmalade is SO good I'm struggling to stop myself eating it by the spoonful but...

[hatwoman]

it didn't set. It tastes fantastic. but why didn;t it set? I've been out today to buy another kg of sevilles and some preservng sugar to try again.

OMG, this thread has given me a craving for marmalade bread and butter pudding

mmmm. we're having people round for dinner next week. think they might be getting marmalade bread and butter pudding. love the stuff.

Hatwoman - in the spirit of helping others...........I'm more than happy to come and do some informal quality control

Ha! Have just made 4 litres of orange soup/sauce. S'posed to be marmalade! Tastes great - would make an awful mess on toast!
Used a recipe that bolied whole oranges first, then you cool the oranges, cut them in half and scrape them out and return the pith/pip scrapings to the orange water and boil it up to get them pectin out. You then just use a sieve to sieve it all. I guess it's exactly the same result as the muslin bag - without the muslin. And similar to Lilymaids, but longer as no p'cooker.

Apart from mine is ridiculously runny. Bum. Hatwoman, I'll happily send you a sample.

All suggestions welcome. Off to buy some jam sugar and pectin to try to save this orangey mess.

I gave up the muslin hunt years ago, and now use a fresh J-cloth for straining everything.

I'm going to start my first batch this afternoon. I bought a book this morning and it made me very nervous saying that marmalade only has a brief setting point and if you pass that it won't set.

I can see myself frantically testing!

chutney - worry ye not.

I use the whole fruit boiling method, then chop in a food processor, having removed pips, then add a little more water and lemon juice plus the sugar and boil. Once the sugar is dissolved, it takes anything from 20-30 mins, IME, to get to setting point. I use a few saucers in the freezer. I test every few minutes from 20 minutes, putting a blob on the freezing saucer and leaving it at least 30 secs. Then push it with your little finger and if it even slightly wrinkles, its done. Take off heat. Overboiling once it has reached setting point makes it darker and much stickier. You can solve this a little by adding more water, but best to keep an eye.

Thanks taffetasplat! That sounds much more manageable than my panicking mind thought.