You’ll need:

• 1kg oranges
• 2 lemons
• Sugar
• Optionally pectin – available in Turkey in sachets called ‘Recelyap’
• Thermometer
• Clean, sterilised jars

Process:

Wash your fruit and then juice your oranges and lemons and put it all in a pan (If you are lucky enough to have a slow cooker, you can use that for this part of the process. Add to this about the same amount of water.

If you want to add in a couple of bitter oranges, grab a couple from one of the orange trees in Fethiye town as these seem to be generally of that variety.

I’m not sure if they are there to be picked, so don’t go mad and pick a bag full, just put the odd one or two in your pocket.

{mosimage}Gather up all the pulp and pips into a muslin square, tie up and add to the juice - this is essential for providing natural pectin - the stuff that thickens your liquid into a nice spreadable consistency.

Slice up the rind into shreds, you can remove some of the pith before you do this if you like.  I don’t like the shreds much, so just zested the skins and chopped that finely.  Add this to the juice.

Now you need to cook the mixture until the rinds are soft, I did 4 hours on high (about 99 degrees C) in the slow cooker.  If you use the stove top, simmer it, lid on, and test the rinds till you’re happy. Leave to cool off.

Take out the muslin bag and squeeze it.

Measure out the juice, weigh it and place it back into a large pan, and then measure out the same weight in sugar.

If you like you could substitute some of the sugar with honey.

If you want to be sure of a good set you could add some pectin at this point.  Without pectin, my marmalade had the gentle viscosity of Turkish jams. Add the sugar and pectin if using to the juice and bring to the boil stirring gently to dissolve.

You must now boil this up to 104 degrees C, for which a thermometer is a huge help.

You can try doing the ‘plate test’ (see the note at the end of this article), but if you’re not using pectin the set is not that obvious I didn’t think.

I have an accurate digital thermometer (see picture above) and found it takes quite a long while before the 104 degrees was reached - around 20 minutes – so don’t skimp on the timing or you’ll get a runny marmalade!

Jar it up carefully while hot and leave to cool. Label if required.

Enjoy!

The Plate Test – Place a plate in your freezer. Take it out, place a small amount of the liquid on the plate and wait a few seconds. Then gently push the cooled liquid with your finger to see if it forms the consistency you are after. This is a trial and error approach!