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Less miserly marmalade (add a slosh of booze)

Forget sculleries, media rooms, and matching his-and-hers en suites. My dream home would boast a cool store with reinforced shelves to support all my jars of bottled fruit, jams, jellies, and chutneys.

However, I'm forced to store my seasonal surplus in our stable block, with rat traps set at each door.

It has taken my citrus orchard 10 years to get cracking. But now there's no shortage of fruit, I've come to realize that the ancestral marmalade passed down from my gran is actually a bit miserly.

When Grandma Pat made marmalade, she used one pound of citrus, three pints of water, and three pounds of sugar. This ratio results in a moreish glowing jelly with the occasional sliver of suspended peel.

I prefer a chunkier spread. I now triple the citrus content, hand-cutting the fruit into slender half-crescents. Then, as I take the pot off the boil, I stir in a glug of whiskey for good measure.

I also prefer my marmalade tart, so I favour grapefruit and bitter Seville oranges. If you like it sweeter, use mandarins and Meyer lemons.

INGREDIENTS

2kg citrus

3 litres boiling water

3kg sugar

50ml Cointreau or whiskey (optional)

METHOD

1 Halve citrus, pick out the pips, and finely slice. Place in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand overnight.

2 Pour the citrus and water into a 9-litre preserving pot (see tip below). Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 1 hour, until the fruit is tender.

3 Place a bread plate or saucer in the freezer – you'll use this to test for the setting point in step 5.

4 Stir in the sugar, turn up the heat, and boil hard for an extra hour or so, stirring from time to time.

5 When the marmalade is nearing the setting point, its colour will deepen, the consistency will noticeably thicken, and the bubbling will calm. Test it by spooning a few drops onto the cold plate; it should form a skin when it's ready. You can also test its temperature with a candy thermometer – if it's over 103°C, it will set nicely.

6 Take the pot off the boil and stir in your choice of liquor (if using). Let the marmalade stand for 20-30 minutes before pouring into sterilised jars. If you bottle it straight away, the citrus tends to float to the top of each jar rather than being evenly distributed.