Seville Orange Marmalade
Seville orange marmalade (Yield 3 jars 340g)
Ingredients:
500g Seville oranges
50ml lemon juice
1kg granulated white sugar
Before you start: Weigh the oranges and make a note of the weight, as this will tell you how much of the other ingredients you’ll need to ensure the marmalade sets well. The basic ratio is: both the sugar and the strained liquid from the sliced and simmered oranges should roughly equal twice the weight of the uncooked whole oranges. So if you start with 500g fruit, after cooking you want to be left with a litre of liquid once the peels have been strained out, and need 1kg of sugar. Don’t use sugar with pectin as the pips and pith will give you enough pectin for a decent set.
Here goes: Cut the oranges in half and squeeze out the juice, as this makes chopping the peel less messy. Remove any pips from the juice, spoon any remaining pips out of the peel, place them in a tea cup and cover with water. Then chop the peel into shreds about 0.25cm wide and place in a bowl with the reserved orange juice and cover with water. Leave both overnight, as this will help the marmalade set well.
The next day, place the peel and water into a large heavy based saucepan, or even better, a jam pan. Sieve the pips, place their soaking water (which will have jellied slightly) into the pan, then tie the pips in muslin and drop this into your pan. Steadily bring to the boil, then simmer, topping up with water so that the fruit stays well covered, until the peel is soft when squished between finger and thumb. Start checking after 45minutes and every 20 minutes thereafter.
When the peel is soft, strain the juice from the peel and measure it. Whatever the original weight of fruit was at the beginning, you want about double that in cooking liquid. So if you started with 500g fruit, then try and have roughly a litre (in other words 1000ml or 1000g) of cooking liquid left. If you have more, boil it down in a saucepan to intensify it. If you have less, top it up with water to dilute it.
Then add the sugar: double the weight of oranges. Add the strained peel, plus 50ml lemon juice for every 500 uncooked whole oranges used. Bring to the boil, skim off any white froth and pips that rise to the surface, and then boil steadily until the temperature reaches 105C/220F on a jam thermometer.
Meanwhile sterilise enough jars in the oven and have the lids washed and ready. When the marmalade reaches 105C/220F, turn the heat off and leave for 10 minutes. You can at this point, add a small nut of butter to remove any impurities that might have bubbled up to the surface.
Ladle the marmalade into a jug then pour this carefully into the jars, leaving just a bare 0.5 gap at the top. Screw the lid on tightly and leave undisturbed until completely cold.
Original recipe: Dan Lepard/BBC Good Food
Words tweaked by me
Recipe tested by me
Marmalade eaten by me