Orange you glad I tried it?

I saw a copy of The Farmer's Wife Canning and Preserving Cookbook a few weeks ago and copied down what I thought was the most simple orange marmalade recipe that I had ever seen.  Just in case I ever decided to make it, you know?  Recipe hoarder that I am.  Well, I finally bought the book and started on a couple of batches of this stuff since I was able to get about 10 pounds of navel oranges on sale yesterday.  It's on pg 67, English Orange Marmalade c. 1913.  Since this recipe is in a book that's being sold I'll refrain from posting the recipe.

Anyway, I had forgotten how much I disliked the smell of oranges until about halfway through the 3 hour cooking process.  Then I couldn't get the pulp to reach a gel stage, so it had to cook even longer.  One thing I did do was take the hand blender to it as the rinds were not cooking down like they are supposed to.  After 3 hours they were still fairly stiff, this changed after I blended them a bit, they softened up quite a bit within a half hour.  We were hitting the 5 hour mark before I considered the stuff ready to toss in jars, I'm hoping it sets.  This will be one recipe I probably won't try again unless it gets rave reviews!

I did end up with 12 half pints and 5 pints that were literally pinging as I set them down on the towel to cool.  Has to be the fastest vacuum I've ever set on a jar.  If they don't set they will be a very orangy pancake syrup!

Now for the rest of the oranges.......