We’re self-confessed jam-aholics. Give us a calm morning with plenty of hot coffee and sourdough toast slathered with butter (or ricotta) and scads of decent jam, and we’re happy-as. And note the use of the word ‘decent’ there. Being fussy about jam is not food-snobbery and if you’ve eaten portioned jam or marmalade from those little square plastic things with the foil top you have to wrestle to get off, you’ll know what we mean. Sad, blobby and overly-sweet, that style of jam ain’t our thing. When we have time we make our own jam and when we don’t, we buy good stuff. (And shout-out to the lady who sells her home-made jams at the Waipa County carpark market in Te Awamutu every Saturday morning. Seriously; if you’re heading that way at the start of a weekend, it’s worth detouring off SH1 for a jar of her quince, raspberry, plum, apricot, mixed berry, or whatever else she’s got on hand. It’s all homemade and tastes just how jam should be – packed with flavour and fruit, and perfectly sweet but with a slightly sharp edge). 

Winter brings a dearth of fruits that are good for jam, so we make do with sweet orange marmalade… not that that’s a bad thing. We add soaked, dried apricots to ours (the tangy, dark orange ones, not the lighter, much milder-tasting Turkish ones) and some rosemary for a herbal kick. But leave the rosemary out if you dont think it’s your, well, jam. The apricots aren’t a necessity either; you could leave them out and decrease the sugar by around a cup. 

If you’ve never made jam before, read our little piece on pectin, as it’s a crucial element in getting your jam or marmalade to set. Oranges are naturally very high in pectin and that’s great news for a novice marmalade-maker because it’s easy to achieve a good ‘set’. Plus, this recipe isn’t overly high in water so it’s a naturally thick, concentrated brew. 

If you’re mystified by (or terrified of) sterilising jars, here’s the drill. Get your clean, dry jars and place them on their sides, not touching, in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 140˚C (conventional), then leave your jars to heat up. This kills any bacteria, preventing your preserves from spoiling. Fill the hot jars with still-hot jam and seal them; if there’s any thermal shock, your jars may crack. Some jam-makers place their jars upright on a baking sheet but we envisage dropping/sliding accidents with this scenario so we don’t do this. We are, however, clumsy. A large baking dish, or something similar that has sides, would make us feel less nervous in this scenario.

MAKES ABOUT 10 CUPS

1.5kg navel oranges, (about 6), halved and thinly sliced

375g dried apricots, coarsely chopped

2 litres (8 cups) boiling water

1.3kg (6 cups) caster sugar

4 sprigs rosemary

Combine the oranges and apricots in a large non-reactive saucepan or preserving pan, then add the boiling water. Stand the mixture for 8 hours or overnight. 

Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, then cook for 45 minutes or until the fruit is very soft. 

Add the sugar, then bring the mixture slowly to a simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Cook over medium-low heat for about 1 hour, or until a little marmalade sets when spooned onto a cold saucer (it will leave a trail when you run your finger through it.) 

Ladle the hot marmalade into hot, sterilised jars, cool then seal. The marmalade will keep, stored in sterilised jars in a cool, dry place, for up to 6 months.