Who’s Making Marmalade?

[John DeLapp]

I’m sitting here in California up to my elbows in Seville oranges, making marmalade. I would like to know if there are others who are experienced in making the rough old Scottish type. It consists of Seville Oranges, the same weight in sugar and the same weight again of the water used to boil the oranges at the start. As much as I can appreciate the labors of others with their tri fruit blends and carefully sectioned fruit removing all traces of membrane that is not what I’m after. Is anyone still making the rough old original? I have been doing this for approximately the past eight or nine years so I’m not an absolute beginner.
I’ve started with 14 1/2 pounds of oranges.

 

[flh801978]

Funnily enough in Waitrose supermarkets ( top class supermarket in the uk) they were doing recipe cards next to the oranges

 

[flh801978]

1kg oranges to 2 kg sugar

 

[John DeLapp]

Thanks F, I wonder if anyone has actually made marmalade using two to one sugar. For years I’ve picked oranges from street trees in Sacramento. Nobody bothers with spraying them but they don’t get a lot of water. Tha marmalade required close to an even hundred percent sugar. For the last few years I’ve gotten from my pal Michael’s tree. Unquestionably organic and well irrigated. Although the Seville are never remotely sweet I’ve found that I can cut back on the sugar just a little. The photo if I can get it to print just once, is my wife holding a pick pole in Town. You’ll have to take my word for it.

 

[Blackswanwood]

My wife makes Marmalade and coincidentally bought a box of Seville oranges at the weekend. She tells me that always uses a bit less sugar than the recipe states.

Great part of the world that you live in. We had a couple of nights over in Placerville as part of a holiday back in September - I’ve never seen as many apple trees!

 

[Vulcan]

I love Marmalade but try to limit my refined sugar intake so I don’t have it very often.
I’d like to try this stuff to see what it’s like. If it’s any good then maybe I could make my own?

https://www.mediterraneandirect.co....W5C8jiJGY5nQKLgqvgAwdczrAuEzibaBoCdv0QAvD_BwE

 

[Jacob]

6 oranges weigh about 1kg. We freeze them 1kg per bag and make more marmalade as necessary. Saves on the jars.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Add a couple of lemons, substitute some of the sugar for muscovado and bottle it a tot of Irish whiskey on top. Wonderful. Quite wonderful.

 

[John DeLapp]

Add a couple of lemons, substitute some of the sugar for muscovado and bottle it a tot of Irish whiskey on top. Wonderful. Quite wonderful.

Thanks Phil, as I said I’ve been doing this for a number of years. I’ve used lemons, Meyer lemons, Valencia oranges, all sorts of stuff. In the last few years I’ve returned to the absolutely pure original. If you like it there’s nothing better.

 

[DavidRa]

Another for 2:1 sugar. Like others I am trying to reduce my sugar intake but sourdough, butter and homemade marmalade is just not worth giving up. Been making it for 30+ years but I seem to be the only one in my family who likes it. I do force it in my grown up kids at Christmas in the form of stocking fillers and find that one jar probably lasts them the year. When we go and visit it is where I left it in the back of the fridge.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Steamed marmalade pudding is wonderful. I found a recipe in a newspaper 35+ years ago and my m.i.l. made it every Xmas as an alternatie to Xmas pudding.

 

[MF1000]

Add a couple of lemons, substitute some of the sugar for muscovado and bottle it a tot of Irish whiskey on top. Wonderful. Quite wonderful.

Smokey Laphroig is even better

 

[stuart little]

A job for Paddington Bear, I believe!

 

[SimonB]

We make it most years, 3-6kg depending on how much time we have, and give away most of it. I like mine quite tart and find recipes too sweet so we add pectin and cut down on the sugar. The initial boiling of the chopped fruit with all the pips and pith in a muslin imparts a lot of pectin too and helps it set with reduced sugar. We don't pre-boil our oranges like the OP though, but do do that for the three fruit version that we also make, and I now prefer.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Smokey Laphroig is even better

Sorry. Laphroig isn't better than anything.

 

[John DeLapp]

Well I did get the oranges chopped and into pots and pans yesterday. It came out to twelve and two thirds pounds. I had simmered the seeds, or pips, in boil water for several hours then worked them through a kitchen strainer to get as much of the remaining pectin off, though I don’t know why I bother.
I wonder how many of the guys commenting are using Seville oranges. These things, when boiled and cut open are forty percent pips, twenty percent pulp with the remaining forty percent being sticky incredibly sour and bitter goo.
Although a one to one mix of fruit and sugar isn’t always necessary if the tree has had ample water I will probably end up using ten and a half or eleven pounds. That’s what’s needed to keep from turning one’s mouth inside out.
incidentally, I been out for a while in November and bought four large Navel oranges and made a quick batch. Almost no seeds, none of the sticky pectin feel. It still set without added pectin but altbough it got me through it was like the diner packets.

 

[imageel]

I'm just prepping my 1st batch - 2kg of oranges and a couple of lemons. I follow a recipe my dad used which results in a really tangy and tasty marmalade - I give away lots to friends and family and they love it -
1kg fruit
1.25kg sugar
Steam fruit for ~2hrs or until dimpled - or ~15mins in a pressure cooker +1pt water
When cool slice and de-pip but put everything cut up into the preserving pan, pith and skin.
Warm and then tip sugar in and stir till dissolved, then increase heat to bring to a boil
~20mins you should see the mixture change and acquire a glossy coating - 'the rolling boil' and at this point test for set by placing a drop onto a chilled saucer and 5mins later check to see if it wrinkles, if not repeat...
Progress thus far -

 

[MF1000]

Sorry. Laphroig isn't better than anything.

Ah you’re not a peatophile then ….say that very carefully

 

[RupertV]

I'm just prepping my 1st batch - 2kg of oranges and a couple of lemons. I follow a recipe my dad used which results in a really tangy and tasty marmalade - I give away lots to friends and family and they love it -
1kg fruit
1.25kg sugar
Steam fruit for ~2hrs or until dimpled - or ~15mins in a pressure cooker +1pt water
When cool slice and de-pip but put everything cut up into the preserving pan, pith and skin.
Warm and then tip sugar in and stir till dissolved, then increase heat to bring to a boil
~20mins you should see the mixture change and acquire a glossy coating - 'the rolling boil' and at this point test for set by placing a drop onto a chilled saucer and 5mins later check to see if it wrinkles, if not repeat...
Progress thus far -
View attachment 173903

No help to you but just to say that my mother used to make marmalade in a large (Copper?) pan each year and the smell of marmalade making still takes me straight back 60 years - its one of my favorite smells. I would eat it straight out of the jar, never a fan of jams as they were too sweet without the tang.

 

[Furniture Restorer]

That looks proper tasty.

My late mother used to make her own marmalade well into her 80s. Our local greengrocer would order them especially every year as she was the only customer they had that knew how to make the stuff. I remember that sugar ratios, and lemons for the pectin were critical. I haven't seen Seville oranges available in years.