Originally posted in 2010:

My grandma Young used to do a lot of fruit bottling and jam making; I suppose everyone who had fruit trees did in those days as they didn’t have freezers or even a fridge in grandma’s case. She used to make a jam that she called Marrow Cream; it was very much like lemon curd. I’ve since learned that it’s more commonly called marrow curd.

Poor old marrow curd, it’s a superb lemony concoction that’s up there with the best of them but has nothing going for it in the name stakes, does it? So for everyone’s benefit, I’ve renamed it Autumn Curd. Of course, a good PR man would also double or treble the price to make it even more attractive but as you’ll make your own, this doesn’t really apply!

I couldn’t find Grandma Young’s recipe, but this one seemed very similar.

I’ve amended it slightly to make it more like the jam I remember:

The ingredients:
2½ lb cooked marrow flesh (about 3½lb before cooking)
2 – 2½ lb sugar (depending on how sweet you like things!)
Juice and grated rind of 4 large lemons
6 oz butter

Method:
Steam the marrow until soft. Leave it to drain in a sieve or colander squeezing as much of the liquid out as possible. Mash or liquidise it and squeeze again. Place it into a pan with the sugar and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon juice and grated rind then the butter. When the butter has melted, bring it all to a rolling simmer, stirring to prevent sticking. Simmer it until thick – about 5 – 10 minutes and then bottle it into sterilised jars.

I tasted some of this warm and it was superb. On cooling, I found it to be very sweet. I’ll maybe add more marrow and lemon or less sugar next time. That said, it’s still bloomin’ good.