Victorian apple jam

A friend gave me a bag of apples that came from her neighbour's tree.  It's been an amazing year for apples and the neighbour just didn't know what to do with them all so when my friend picked the apples from the branches that overhang her garden, they were unwanted!  So she gave some to me, which was extremely kind.  I found this recipe on the internet but have changed it just a little bit and reduced the amounts by around half.  I'm glad I did as it made 9 pots of scrumptiousness!

Here's the original recipe:  http://recipewise.co.uk/apple-jam-victorian-recipe

This is what I did.

Ingredients:
1.35 kg cooking apples
about 800g sugar (a mix of jam sugar and granulated sugar)
600mls water
the juice and rind of 2 oranges
some lemon juice
3 cloves
a small cinnamon stick
1 star anise and some bits from the bottom of the packet

Method:
Wash the apples, remove the stalks and any bad bits and roughly chop the rest of the apple, core, skin and all.  Place them in a preserving or large pan with 600mls water with the orange juice and zest and the lemon juice added, to stop the apples browning.  Throw in the cinnamon and the cloves.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the apple is cooked and pulpy.  Then push the lot through a sieve to get rid of the spice, skin, core and pips.

Put the hot sieved pulp back in the cleaned preserving pan.  Add the sugar and stir.  Leave until the sugar has completely dissolved

Put two saucers into the fridge (to test for set).
Bring to a good boil and simmer rapidly for about ten minutes.  Be careful as it spits - I used one of those mesh splatter guard thingies.
Test for set, removing the pan from the heat while you do so.  If not at setting point, boil for another five minutes and check again.  Repeat as needed.

When it has reached setting point, fish out the star anise, pour into hot, sterilised jars and seal.

So that's one for my friend, one for her neighbour and most of the rest will be great for Christmas presents.  Excellent!