Marmalade

Posted by Tris in Bitter orange, Cooking, Fruit preserves, Home, Marmalade, Orange, Oranges, Preserves, recipe, Seville marmalade, Spain, Sugar

1 comments

Its that time of year again when you can fill up your stock cupboard with delicious home made marmalade, so here's a great recipe that my mum uses to make her marmalade. The trick to great marmalade is Seville oranges, these large bitter oranges grown throughout the mediteranian have a higher pectin content, giving you a higher yield and a better set when you make your marmalade.

Marmalade as we know it was first made poular by Dundee jam maker James Kellier in 1797. Although the Greeks and the Romans were making quince marmalade thousands of years before. What we imagine as marmalade; clear sweet orange jelly with tart orange peel, was probably invented by Kellier's wife after a large batch of bitter orange arrived from Spain, and were sold cheap at the docks in Teyside.

Ingredients

2kg Seville Oranges

2 Lemons

4kg Suger

4l Water

Method

Wash the fruit, then cut them in half. Squeeze out the juice and remove the pips. Cut the peel into thin strips and put in a large preserving pan with the water, and fruit juice. Put the pulp and the seeds in a muslin bag and add them to the preserving pan too (If you don't have any muslin then boil them in a separate pan with some water, then strain this into the preserving pan before you add the sugar). Simmer the fruit for about 1 hour and a half.

Remove and strain the muslin with the pulp and seeds. Then add the sugar into the pan when it has all dissolved bring it to the boil. Boil until the marmalade reaches a setting point, skimming the marmalade to make sure the scum doesn't stick to the peel. Setting point usually takes about 15 to 20 mins. --> The setting point is when the marmalade reaches 105 degrees. It is easier to test this using a cold plate, when the marmalade is cool you will be able to push your finger through it and the marmalade will wrinkle slightly and not run back straight away.

When the marmalade is set. Let the marmalade stand for ten minutes, and then transfer into sterilised jars, cover with waxed preserving papers and leave to cool. When cool add a lid and a label and keep in a cool dark place for up to a year.