'The house is 十分な of half-eaten マリファナs of marmalade': Charlotte Eagar steps into the bittersweet world of marmalade mania

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Jane Hasell-McCosh lives in a house 十分な of marmalade. As に適するs the home of the 創立者 of the Dalemain World Marmalade Awards, マリファナs of the stuff line surfaces and 小包s of it are heaped in さまざまな halls.

Throughout the morning? I spend at Dalemain Mansion, an Elizabethan-Georgian pile by Ullswater in the Lake 地区, marmalade keeps arriving from all over the world ? by 地位，任命する, by DHL or dropped off by 手渡す. By the time I leave, the 塚 of 入ること／参加（者）s has grown by several feet.

The 競争, 奮起させるd by a 17th-century family marmalade recipe and first held in 2005, has 達成するd a 全世界の presence. There’s a marmalade museum upstairs, 統括するd over by Paddington 耐える (his creator, Michael 社債, was an 早期に 支持者), with a shelf 充てるd to the 勝利者s, whose recipes Fortnum & Mason (one of the sponsors) makes commercially and sells each year.

‘Last year we had more than 3,000 入ること／参加（者）s from all over the world. We have sister festivals in Australia and Japan,’ says Hasell-McCosh (Japan’s yuzu tastes like a grapefruit/lemon cross). ‘The Japanese are keen on savoury marmalades with meat and fish.’ She travels there each year to help 裁判官 the 競争.

Zest in show: 入ること／参加（者）s on 陳列する，発揮する at Dalemain

I first heard about the World Marmalade Awards 15 years ago, from a cousin whose mother’s 伝説の marmalade is always a much-心にいだくd gift.?

‘Mum’s fallen 犠牲者 to a conman,’ he said. ‘You send off your マリファナ of marmalade and ten quid to something called the World Marmalade Awards.?She’s furious she hasn’t won. Do they even bother to taste it?’ We had 見通しs of someone rubbing their 手渡すs, surrounded by uneaten マリファナs of marmalade and £10 公式文書，認めるs.

A few years later, I met Hasell-McCosh’s niece, who told me, ‘Jane takes it terribly 本気で! The house is 十分な of half-eaten マリファナs of marmalade, and the 入ること／参加（者） money all goes to charity.’ 特に: 地元の hospices; they’ve raised over £250,000.

The 競争 is divided into さまざまな 部類s: Seville, Any Citrus, Children’s, Octogenarians, Man Made, Merry (booze), Campanologists, Hotel & B&B, Tea-Time, 利益／興味ing 新規加入s (chilli, ginger, 海草, lapsang souchong, whisky).?

The only 支配する is they have to be citrus based. ‘We’ve got a new 部類 this year: 刑務所，拘置所s, with an 入ること／参加（者） from Maryland Correctional 学校／設ける for Women in the US.’

裁判官ing takes a month. The パネル盤, led by Hasell-McCosh, 構成するs 地元の volunteers, friends, the WI and the Lions Club. ‘We’ve had some of the 裁判官s for 18 years,’ she says.

The 勝利者s are 発表するd at Dalemain’s 年次の spring Marmalade Festival (this year, it’s 20 April, dalemain.com) to a （人が）群がる as 密集して packed as a jar of 保存するd fruit, drawn from as far and wide as Norway and Taiwan. At Penrith 駅／配置する, they’re welcomed by Paddington 耐える to the ‘Marma-lakeland’.

Last year’s 最高の，を越す award was won on the seventh 試みる／企てる by Tim Nind from Edinburgh, who said it was ‘better than winning Wimbledon!’ Others agree.

Jane Hasell-McCosh 長，率いるs the 裁判官ing パネル盤

‘My husband’s obsessed,’ said Sarah Barclay, former YOU magazine beauty editor and wife of a busy KC. ‘He enters every year in different 部類s. He puts in whisky and honey.’ He’s entering the Marmal-Ashes [for an extra £3 you can compete against marmalade from Australia]. He’s even won a Silver メダル.’ My cousin won a Bronze.

My mother made marmalade, but she never taught me, as she died when I was a child. I love eating it, though. That’s why I took the train to Dalemain’s dark and sticky heart of marmalade.

After Cumberland sausages, to ast and marmalade (明白に) in her kitchen, Hasell-McCosh takes me through the 裁判官ing 基準: ‘Is it （疑いを）晴らす? Vibrant?’

She 持つ／拘留するs a マリファナ up to the light. ‘Although that’s hard with the Dark and Chunky ones. Is the マリファナ clean? Is it 十分な to the 最高の，を越す? Does it ‘pop’ when you unscrew the lid? Is it too 始める，決める? But also you don’t want it to flow off the toast.’

泡s, I learn, are bad.

‘I take 示すs off for too much peel,’ she says. ‘Look how pretty that label is! Read the 成分s!’ She tastes from the spoon, savouring like ワイン. ‘Can you taste them?’ We try a jar from the Tea-Time 部類: the ghost of lapsang ぐずぐず残るs on my tongue.

On the 味方する is a saucepan 十分な of pre-cooked fruit ? a grapefruit, some Seville oranges, a 甘い orange and a lemon.?

‘You?can make this all year 一連の会議、交渉／完成する,’ Hasell-McCosh tells me. She uses a 圧力 cooker (quicker and more environmentally sound). Once she’s got rid of the pips and 捨てるd off the pith, she chops up the fruit with herb scissors.

‘It’s so much faster. Some people use a Magimix, but it makes it very cloudy.’

She 注ぐs the 低俗雑誌 into a 手段ing jug, 追加するs the liquid the fruit has been cooked in and 最高の，を越すs up with water to 二塁打 the 低俗雑誌’s 容積／容量. ‘The liquid is where the 魔法 is: the pectin and all the flavour.’?

Heat the liquid, then 追加する a 続けざまに猛撃する of sugar per pint ? Hasell-McCosh prefers white, pre-warmed in the Aga (‘It melts more quickly’). Bring the mixture to a gloopy, volanic boil. ‘When it’s ready, it has a lovely crackling sound.’ Let it stand for ten minutes, then put into steril ised jars.

支援する home, I （犯罪の）一味 Julia, a Ukrainian former triathlon 支持する／優勝者 and Eurovision Song Contest 競争相手 who, pre-war, also had an award-winning chain of pastry shops in ウクライナ共和国. Fruit 保護 is big in Eastern Europe because of long winters and poor 供給（する） chains. She turns out to have been marmalade-trained by a Michelin-starred chef in Paris.

After 圧力 cooking the fruit, under Julia’s direction, I chop it, carefully 捨てるing 支援する the pith, and 削減（する） up the peel. Julia 層s flavour: vanilla and almond.

‘You won’t taste it,’ she says when I 反対する. I 主張する on ginger.

‘Urgh! I wouldn’t 追加する vanilla!’ says my stepmother, a 製造者 of marmalade as dark as night. Then she tastes Julia’s recipe: ‘That’s delicious!’

I become obsessed. In a week I make さまざまな （製品，工事材料の）一回分s ? chilli, ginger and lime; Earl Grey and orange blossom; 星／主役にする anise and gin. I have marmalade with sausages, on toast, in cake, with cheese. Not 普通は a 広大な／多数の／重要な 甘い-eater, I now live in a brain-fogged marmalade sugar high.?

Julia sends me a jar of yuzu and bergamot ? celestial but?not for savoury food. ‘Making marmalade is meditation,’ she says. Perhaps that’s the attraction: a コンビナート／複合体 過程, 要求するing 焦点（を合わせる） and creativity, but 伴う／関わるing 比較して little 強調する／ストレス.

The simplest recipe comes from Sarah Barclay, かもしれない competing with her (very 競争の激しい) husband: ‘Nigella’s pink grapefruit. You can’t go wrong. Chop up the whole fruit and only take out the pips.’?

Two pink grapefruits, lemon juice, a キロ of sugar. The results are delicious, jewel （疑いを）晴らす. But perhaps like a cheeky pinot grigio versus?a コンビナート／複合体 white burgundy.?

I enter two jars for the 競争: Julia’s and 地雷 for the 世代s Together 部類 (I am older than Julia’s mother), and a grapefruit, orange and lemon cross with Earl Grey and orange blossom in Any Citrus.?

I would have entered more 部類s but I couldn’t 耐える to part with my precious マリファナ. I have definitely crossed to the dark and sticky 味方する. I now have cupboards packed with labelled jars and send マリファナs as 現在のs. I have given up sugar for Lent ? except in marmalade.

I think it’s time I made some more.