Who’s Making Marmalade?

[Phil Pascoe]

I bought Sevilles on Saturday for a lady who makes loads of pickles, jams and marmalades and sells them for local charities.

 

[flh801978]

Available in your local waitrose

 

[John DeLapp]

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

It looks great. What are the oranges and where do you get them?

 

[Jameshow]

I have a spare 2kg of sugar is it worth making marmalade and how many kg of oranges do I need? Need to borrow a big pan!!

 

[John DeLapp]

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.

The house becomes infused with the smell. The Seville have a distinct aroma.

 

[Furniture Restorer]

Available in your local waitrose

I shall have to bring this up with my local Co-op.

 

[imageel]

@John DeLapp They are Sevilles imported from unsurprisingly Seville in Spain - usually available in the supermarkets around this time of year - as others have mentioned Waitrose and Sainsburys both have them at the moment but if you blink they are gone!!
Seville itself is a fabulous place to visit - I have been there often and the oranges grow in the parks and even line some of the streets and around March/April they litter the streets creating a squishy mess for the urban cleaners to clear up!!

@Jameshow The recipe I follow uses way less sugar than most, - 1kg fruit to 1.25kg of sugar +2 unwaxed lemons - I give a lot of it away to friends and family and all including myself find it is plenty sweet enough

 

[John DeLapp]

@John DeLapp They are Sevilles imported from unsurprisingly Seville in Spain - usually available in the supermarkets around this time of year - as others have mentioned Waitrose and Sainsburys both have them at the moment but if you blink they are gone!!
Seville itself is a fabulous place to visit - I have been there often and the oranges grow in the parks and even line some of the streets and around March/April they litter the streets creating a squishy mess for the urban cleaners to clear up!!
@Jameshow The recipe I follow uses way less sugar than most, - 1kg fruit to 1.25kg of sugar +2 unwaxed lemons - I give a lot of it away to friends and family and all including myself find it is plenty sweet enough

There are large numbers of Seville orange trees in Sacramento. The photo is my wife with the pick pole. As we were picking in front of St John’s Lutheran an oldish church lady stopped to tell us,“Oh dear, those oranges aren’t any good, they’re sour and bitter.” Most of those oranges also end up in the gutter.
the issue is they don’t get regular water.

 

[imageel]

@John DeLapp -Nice! -you are lucky to get yours for free. I must admit for folks that have never tasted the real thing they really don't know what they are missing!
As a child we were brought up with my father making jams and pickles out of produce from the garden so we were spoilt in that regard, and I have enduring memories of my dad in front of the stove with newspapers scattered around to catch the splashes whilst the entire house was bathed in the fragrance of oranges and the flavour of it is out of this world in comparison to shop bought conserves
I don't know if in Seville the authorities irrigate the trees in the city, for sure in summer it is very hot with temps over 36C not uncommon making it the 2nd hottest city in Continental Europe -nearby Cordoba is the hottest!
Anyways looks like a bumper harvest on that tree alone - happy days!!

 

[John DeLapp]

Well, I’ve gotten them in the jars. Seventeen pints and eight halves. I tasted as I went yesterday, it's difficult because the orange is so extreme. I ended up using ten and a half pounds of sugar for twelve and a half fruit. Tart ain’t in it, it’s too sour. Everything else is about right. I’ll put it back in the pots this afternoon, add another couple of pounds of sugar and give it another go. Cheers!

 

[imageel]

@John DeLapp -Bah teach me to skim read your starting post....
The recipe I use involves the whole orange -peel, pith and innards where the only bits discarded are the knobbly ends and the pips- albeit these bits get saved and are briefly boiled in maybe 300ml of water to extract more pectin from mainly the pips to aid setting the mix. Also I only use 1kg oranges to 1.25kg sugar + 2 unwaxed lemons and that plus the bitterness imparted by the pith and internal membranes results in quite a tangy marmalade.
Where this departs from what it looks like you are doing is this -
I just steam the fruit whole for ~2hrs - in fact for the last 2y I have been doing the steaming in an Instantpot pressure cooker - it only takes 15minutes and seems to retain more flavour!
Then I quarter the fruit, de-pip and trim ends and chop them straight into the preserving pan, add sugar and warm till dissolved then boil for ~30mins to approach set-point.
Chopping the fruit after initial cooking is slightly messy - sticky hands etc but is super easy because the peel is soft and it would appear to be way quicker than scooping out all the innards to then recombine later on.
No right or wrong way for sure but this one works for me!!

 

[John DeLapp]

@John DeLapp -Bah teach me to skim read your starting post....
The recipe I use involves the whole orange -peel, pith and innards where the only bits discarded are the knobbly ends and the pips- albeit these bits get saved and are briefly boiled in maybe 300ml of water to extract more pectin from mainly the pips to aid setting the mix. Also I only use 1kg oranges to 1.25kg sugar + 2 unwaxed lemons and that plus the bitterness imparted by the pith and internal membranes results in quite a tangy marmalade.
Where this departs from what it looks like you are doing is this -
I just steam the fruit whole for ~2hrs - in fact for the last 2y I have been doing the steaming in an Instantpot pressure cooker - it only takes 15minutes and seems to retain more flavour!
Then I quarter the fruit, de-pip and trim ends and chop them straight into the preserving pan, add sugar and warm till dissolved then boil for ~30mins to approach set-point.
Chopping the fruit after initial cooking is slightly messy - sticky hands etc but is super easy because the peel is soft and it would appear to be way quicker than scooping out all the innards to then recombine later on.
No right or wrong way for sure but this one works for me!!

I suspect that we aren’t far off in our finished product. The main difference I see is in boiling. When I first started researching the boil water was always listed as an integral Part I believe it ends up with a lot of flavor.
These oranges came from my pal Michael’s tree and are ordinarily, while never approaching sweet, much closer than the unirrigated street trees. I have lemons and Meyer lemons behind the house, also free. After years of fooling around I’ve come to decision that straight Seville is my favorite. My method, oranges in the pot of water until the peel becomes fork tender. Cut in half and remove pips and pulp. The seeds and stem bit go into water to boil for a couple of hours and are pressed and worked through a sieve. The peel is sliced and the pulp is run through the food processor. As with you the entire fruit is used. I’ve tried the saucer in the freezer bit but have instead ended up judging by the clump that begins to form at the bottom of the pot while stirring. There is so much pectin that if one is not carefully one can end up a solid mass. Another point I’m reminded of, marmalade goes through a life cycle. The first month it is raw tasting, after that it is great but towards the end of the year it can be brown and thick. I hadn’t made any in 2023 but my last batch lasted through last September. Pretty brown and thick but I missed it when it was gone.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm now eating 2022s.

 

[scockram]

LLP

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.View attachment 173867

Thanks for the inspiration. I've been out this evening and bought 3kg of Seville Oranges in preparation. I've long been a keen jam maker, but only ever made marmalade once before. My favorites are Quince and Medlar.

 

[John DeLapp]

LLP


Thanks for the inspiration. I've been out this evening and bought 3kg of Seville Oranges in preparation. I've long been a keen jam maker, but only ever made marmalade once before. My favorites are Quince and Medlar.

Good on you ! I firmly believe in the trad recipe at this point although a lemon or two couldn’t hurt. I go to Costco where I can get ten pounds of organic sugar. Nice stuff. I ended up right on one to one on sugar and it’s plenty sweet as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve returned mine to the pots, added two plus pounds of sugar, run the jars back thru the dishwasher and gotten them back into jars. Seventeen pints a dozen half’s.
Here’s a little sacrilege , most old marmalade makers don’t can, which is to say immerse the finished jars in boiling water. I read all the literature when I started and went for it. Twice I’ve found a speck of mold growing on a jar, I took it off with a spoon and carried on. No tummy ache FWIW.

 

[SimonB]

We use the Leith recipe, and have tweaked it over the years to my taste - 1kg oranges, 2 lemons, 1.4kg sugar, 0.6 tblsp pectin, 1.7l water - normally we do at least one 3kg batch. Half all the fruit, juice in the Magimix juicer, save and separate juice and pips plus any pith that's come off. Slice the fruit uncooked, I prefer this way, much less messy. Pith and pips into a muslin (j-cloth), tied and suspended in the pan. Make up liquid quantity with the juice and as much water as necessary. Leave to soak for 24 hours. Boil for 2 hours until fruit cuts without any bite. Remove pith/pips bundle. Add sugar. Then boil until setting temperature - a combination of a thermapen as a guide, then the saucer test. Add a knob of butter if necessary to remove any scum, rest for a few minutes then jar.

First batch finished this morning

 

[akirk]

My wife has just finished this year’s batch - however all of ours then has single malt whisky added… mmm yum!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Twice I’ve found a speck of mold growing on a jar, I took it off with a spoon and carried on. No tummy ache FWIW.

I had an acquaintance years ago who was a Roberton's jam salesman. He had been told the there was nothing remotely harmful about a bit of mould, indeed once the jam was mouldy it wouldn't deteriorate any further.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From different books, all Sevilles -
1kg oranges
2l water
2kg sugar
juice of three lemons
..............

1KG oranges
1 lemon
2kg sugar
2.25l water.
................

450gm oranges
1.2l water
900gm sugar

................

1 1/2lb oranges
2pt water
juice of one lemon
3lb sugar.

..............

Much of a muchness. One includes a teaspoon of salt. And I can't find the book I was looking for.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I might try some marmalade from my little calamondin orange.