This is my second batch of marmalade this year – and we’re only into week 6 of 2024. But actually, if I’m to be completely honest here, as I always try to be, today’s marmalade was really batch 3. Batch 1 was a complete disaster. I’ve been making marmalade for more decades than I’d like to count. It’s always worked brilliantly before. I’d last made some in 2020 with my grandson Freddie and that worked really well (click here). So I followed the same recipe back in the beginning of January when I spied the first Seville oranges in Waitrose. And, to my excitement, they were organic too, which I’d not managed to find before. I took some home, gathered two grandsons around me to help – Freddie again, now nearly 9, and brother Ben who is 6. For some reason it went badly. I could only think I’d boiled it too hard in the final stages and burned it, making it dark; I’d also used preserving sugar rather than just granulated – had the extra pectic been too much and the cause of it being so thick, almost like treacle? The boys were disappointed. So, the next day, while they were at school, I made another batch.
This time success! Ben asked what I’d done with the first lot; he knew it hadn’t gone well. I threw it away, I told him. And what about the glass jars? Hmmm … I threw those away too (the marmalade was too thick for me to try to empty the jars). Well, Nonna, Ben told me, next time you make marmalade you must make this good one and not the one you had to throw away. So today, I can tell you, I had many fingers crossed 🤞🤞🤞 wishing it was going to work well!
Of course, when I say we’re only into week 6 of the year, it’s getting near the end of the season for Seville oranges: there’s just a small window for them between the end of December and mid-February. So time for making more was running out. But the first batch was going fast … I’d only made six small (150ml) pots. You can make marmalade with any citrus but there’s really nothing to compare to the wonderful, bitter Seville oranges. Also their thick skins are rich in pectin, which helps the marmalade set well.
I made quite a small batch again. Laziness, I must confess. Marmalade making is quite a labour-intensive thing with all that squeezing of orange and cutting the peel into thin strips. I followed Gary Rhodes’ recipe, which I followed in my 2020 post, and he makes the same fairly small amount.
If you’re looking for a traditional British classic, this is a great book – even though it was published in 1999, I still use it.
Essentially you just use twice the amount of sugar to oranges. I think what put me off making marmalade for a while was that in my increasingly health-conscious state, I was rather appalled by tipping in such a huge amount of sugar to the oranges. But checking the labels of bought marmalade the other day – good quality and organic ones – I saw that my marmalade actually had less sugar. So, it suddenly seemed that perhaps for my marmalade-loving family it was a good thing to make some more.
I managed to not only source organic oranges again, but also organic lemons and sugar. Thus this is an organic marmalade, though of course you can make it with non-organic ingredients. I do prefer to use organic citrus fruit when I can, though, so it’s not only free of chemicals but has no wax coating. And for marmalade, when you’re cooking and eating the peel, that’s especially important.
Here is Gary Rhodes’ recipe as it appears in the book. As I said above, use twice the weight of sugar to oranges. Thus, my 4 oranges were slightly over 450g and so I doubled the measurement for the sugar and added a little more water to match the measurements. It was only a slight difference though, so I kept with the 1 lemon.
Organic Seville Orange Marmalade – makes 6 small pots
- 450g organic Seville oranges
- juice of 1 organic lemon
- 1.2 litres water
- 900g organic granulated sugar
Have ready either a preserving pan or a large pan. Lay a sieve across the top. Cut the oranges in half and squeeze out all the juice, catching the pips and membrane (which contain pectin) in the sieve. I have a wooden juicer that’s ideal for this.
When you juice all the orange halves, cut them again in half so you have quarters. Now with a sharp knife, carefully cut away as much pith as possible and put that with the pips and membrane in the sieve – they all contain that vital pectin.
Now cut the remaining peel into thin strips (or thick if you prefer thick-cut marmalade!). Put the strips of peel into the pan with the orange juice. Now add the juice of 1 lemon.
Transfer the pips etc. into a large square of muslin. Then gather it together into a bundle and tie it up with kitchen string at the top – leave a little space for movement so everything can amalgamate well as it cooks.
Add the water to the pan and then put the muslin bundle in. Squash down. Bring the mixture slowly to a simmer and simmer gently for about 1 hour, or until the peel is tender – remove a piece carefully with a teaspoon to check doneness. If the peel still has too much bite, cook the mixture a little longer. The mixture should have reduced by about half. Stir it all a few times as it cooks and press down on the muslin bundle so it releases the pectin within.
When the peel is tender, lift the bundle carefully – it will be very hot – into a large sieve which has been placed over a bowl. This is the best way I’ve found to do this next step. You have to squeeze as much of the liquid out of the bundle as possible and put it back into the pan with the orange juice and peel. I used a spoon to press down and once it had cooled a bit as I did this, I managed to squeeze with my hands, but do take care not to burn yourself.
Now add the sugar to the pan. Stir over a low heat as you let the sugar dissolve. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, turn the heat up and allow the mixture to boil for about 10 minutes. However – as a kind of warning at the beginning of this post – don’t boil really hard, or it may catch on the bottom and burn, just have the heat turned up enough for it to bubble and a bubbling surface appear. Stir from time to time. Meanwhile, put a couple of saucers in the freezer to get cold.
After 10 minutes, take the pan from the heat and test for doneness. Once the bubbles die down, take a little of the mixture onto a teaspoon and put it on one of the cold saucers. Press gently with your finger. You’ll be able to feel if it’s setting and it should stay pushed forward. It’s ready! If it’s not quite ready, put back on the heat and boil for another 5 minutes – or until done.
Leave the mixture to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes and remove any impurities that rise to the top with a spoon. Stir to spread the peel. While it’s cooling, put jars that you’ve prepared in advance (preferably run through a dishwasher and then rinsed with boiling water to sterilise) into a low oven. The marmalade must be transferred to warm jars.
Now ladle the marmalade into the warm jars. I put a disc of greaseproof paper into the lids and then put the lids on while it’s all hot and seal tightly.
Once the jars are cool, label them. I found it very pleasing to add my labels and admire the new batch of marmalade.
The marmalade can be stored in a cool cupboard but once opened, it’s best to keep it in the fridge. It should keep for about a year in a cool place – though it never lasts nearly long enough in my house and with my family to test that out!!
