Mad for Mandarins: Homemade marmalade

I still have 20 of the mandarins Nonna dropped off last week, and I can only eat so many a day. I've always wanted to make jam and number 66 on my 101 in 1001 is just that.

Marmalade, jam - given the amount of sugar in both of them I figure they're practically the same thing. But making it wasn't as easy, or healthy, as I thought.

When life gives you mandarins...

Billy Law's Mandarin Marmalade recipe looked like the easiest and had step-by-step pictures to go with it.

Between bouts of banshee screaming from Mini Me, I peeled, deplinthed and deseeded 15 juicy mandarins and prepared the other ingredients, mainly the obscene amount of sugar.

15 mandarins deconstructed for the marmalade

In his recipe you put the seeds in a little muslin parcel. I didn't have one, so I improvised with a sieve. I also boiled it for an extra half hour to reduce it more.

Unfortunately the marmalade was still a little runny, since I couldn't leave it unattended as I headed to my first Mother's Group. But it sets enough to work. The rind gives it a bitterness that overpowers the sweetness for me but for a first jam making effort it wasn't that bad. I'd definitely try it again.

Now who to gift the extra jars to...

Mandarin Marmalade ready to be spread