Orange Marmalade

[Jillyreeves]

I was very pleased to see Seville Oranges in my local greengrocers today, last year I couldnt find any for trying. I would love to make some Marmalade but have never made it or jam for that matter before. Can anyone recommend a easy/good recipe please

[northepaul]

River Cottage - River Cottage Community Recipes

Done the one in the preserves book, which looks quite similar - got LOVELY marmalade. so can recommend!

[jackie j]

Must get some, saw some in the market yesterday. Make sure you put a plate / dish in the freezer to test the setting. Take pan off the heat and take a small amount from the pan onto the cold plate and put back in freezer for a few seconds, do the wrinkle test push the marmalade with your finger if it wrinkles its set, if not put pan back on to boil, keep doing this till setting point is reached. I find that sometimes when its in the jars and cold the setting is firmer than I thought when doing the test.

[scarey55]

Funny you should ask that - I made some the other day and it is pretty good even if I say so myself. The recipe was very simple (from my trusty Marguerite Patten book)
Wash 3 oranges and boil whole with 2 pints of water in a covered pan for 1 and a half hours or until a blunt wooden skewer will easily pierce the skin.
Remove the oranges from the liquid (keep the liquid in the pan) and, when cool cut up (neatly, it says in the book) I just sliced them so that the peel is how I like it.
Put the pips into liquid and boil steadily for 10 minutes to extract the pectin (my oranges didn't have any pips so I just used jam making sugar with pectin added)
Remove the pips and replace the cut up orange pulp.
Bring to the boil and stir in 2lbs warmed sugar (I didn't bother warming mine)
Stir until all the sugar is dissolved and boil rapidly without stirring until setting point has been reached. I usually add a knob of butter to stop the scum forming.
Boil for 15 mins it says in the book but I find it takes a lot longer and Jackie is spot on, it does set a bit more once it is completely cold.
Et, voilla!

[valmarg]

Funny you should ask that - I made some the other day and it is pretty good even if I say so myself. The recipe was very simple (from my trusty Marguerite Patten book)
does set a bit more once it is completely cold.!

We made her recipe last year, and it was dreadful/horrid. The shreds of orange rind were as tough as old boots which made the finished product inedible.

Shall be relying on Delia this year.

valmarg

[Hazel at the Hill]

The shreds of orange rind were as tough as old boots which made the finished product inedible.

The rind in my marmalade was rather tough last year too - but that was because I was in too much of a rush to get on to the next stage. I'd always give the oranges a longer time than it says so this doesn't happen again.

[selfraising]

I just made some today. Peeled 1kg of oranges and squeezed the juice and added juice and peel to four pints of water. Roughly chopped the remaining oranges and placed them in a muslin bag suspended in the liquid. Bring to boil and cover, then cook for 2 hours. Allow to cool and squeeze the remaining juice out of the muslin bag into the liquid. Add 4lbs of sugar and the juice of 3 lemons then slowly bring to the boil until you reach setting point. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, stir and then pour into warmed sterilised jars.

[Hilary B]

My method uses 2 pans, but it's worth it!
3lb oranges
6lb sugar
1½ pints water (extra may make things easier in early stages, takes longer to boil to setting)
Makes about 10lb marmalade
Separate peel from remainder of oranges, cut up peel to the size you like, put in pan A with 1 pint water, boil about 2 hours (or 30 mins in pressure cooker) until you can cut a piece of the peel with a fork.
Meanwhile put the rest of the fruit and the rest of the water in another pan, and cook for 2 hours (or 30 mins in pressure cooker).
Strain the liquid from the insides into the peel pan, and rub as much gooey pulp as possible through the strainer (this may take a while, don't skimp, the goo is what makes it set).
Add the sugar warm gently untill all sugar is dissolved, then boil to setting point (test with chilled plate/saucers as described above).
You can replace the Sevill oranges with lemons, or a mixture of lemons and sweet oranges, lemons and grapefruit, or any other combination, although it is best to include some lemon if not using Seville oranges (I made a few jars of lime marmalade last year, when I got some cheap limes, they don't need lemon added either).
If you wish to reduce the sugar a bit, it sill still work, but you will need to boil longer to get a set, and you will get less marmalade (but with a more intense fruity flavour).

[Scottishnewbie]

mine is quite straighforward:

1kg oranges
couple of lemons
lime if you have one
handful of black pepper corns (yes you read it right)
2.5 litres water

cover and simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours till oranges are soft and can easily be pierced with a fork.

leave the whole lot to cool

cut oranges in half, scoop out the pips (lots of flesh will come away as well, doesnt matter you'll still get a set)

slice peel however you like it

measure liquid, you should have 1.7 litres. if less, top up with water, if more boil till reduced.

add whole lot into pan with juice from a lemon or two (depends what i have lurking!) and 2kb ordinary white sugar (darker sugar will give darker marmalade so decide what you prefer)

simmer for anything between 15 - 40 minutes till setting point is reached (see posts above for how to test)

jar and enjoy!

[Jillyreeves]

Bought the oranges and lemons but not got round to making any marmalade yet as all my time has been taken up using cream, hope to find time this coming weekend to get some made.

[valmarg]

Well, made six 1lb pots of Delia's Seville Orange Marmalade today. So far it's much better than last year's.

valmarg

[Hilary B]

Bought the oranges and lemons but not got round to making any marmalade yet as all my time has been taken up using cream, hope to find time this coming weekend to get some made.

If you are worried about finding the time, you can freeze the fruit whole, and simply follow a 'cook them whole' recipe when you get them out of the freezer. You don't need to defrost first!

[northepaul]

I made some seville marmalade the day before yesterday and added rather a lot of muscavado sugar - the result is a very dark almost black marmalade, I did get some comments about it being burned!
Is this whats called a tawny marmalade?

[Hilary B]

I think 'tawny' is made with demerara, or a mixture of white and dark sugar. All dark muscovado tends to be a bit... black treacle-ish. Nice, but not usually according to plan!

[northepaul]

It was actually 1kg standard white sugar and 300g of dark and light muscovado - tastes really nice.
I might just call it something like dark muscovado and seville marmalade as 'tawny' is probably not an accurate description anyway