Bubba’s quick Seville orange marmalade recipe using a pressure cooker
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 26 comments
All set for action
When The Chicken Lady tweeted that she was going to try out a pressure cooker marmalade recipe I was a teeny bit dubious that it could match the flavour of old fashioned marmalade lovingly stirred on the stove for hours. But I was wrong. I was surprised to discover that it tasted pretty good, sweet but with that hint of Seville bitterness. In fact the first thing that I did when I woke up this morning was to rush downstairs and put on two chunky slices of toast so as to guzzle some as soon as possible.
If you have a pressure cooker and not a lot of time – this recipe could be the answer for you. Apart from the cooling time, the marmalade can be made and smeared on toast within an hour!
Despite considering myself to be relatively brave, I must confess that pressure cookers rather alarm me. I can see the sense in them – cutting cooking times, using less energy and sealing the flavours in. I did invest in one back in the 1980’s – it hissed and huffed like a petulant cylindrical dragon. I can’t remember what I was trying to cook but after that first outing it was promptly returned to its cardboard box. Its opening breathy aria was unfortunately its swansong.
This recipe came from TCL’s grandmother, Bubba. Clearly a brave and plucky lady who welcomed her portly dragon to save on time and energy. The recipe is exactly as Bubba wrote it, using Imperial measurements.
Bubba’s quick Seville orange marmalade recipe using a pressure cooker
Ingredients:
2 lb of Seville oranges
2 pints of water
1 lemon
5 lb of sugar
Method:
Pressure cook the oranges and lemon (whole fruit) in the water for 10 minutes at 15 lb pressure.
Leave overnight or until cool.
Scoop out the middle of the fruit and put through a sieve or mouli. Add to the water.
Chop the peel and put back into the water with the sugar.
Slowly bring to the boil and boil til gel (setting point). Test after 15-20 minutes.
Makes 7-8 lbs
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For anyone who doesn’t have a pressure cooker, cooking the oranges whole for 40 minutes works just as well. It’s amazing how quick it is compared to the long simmer of pre-cut raw peel, I suppose it’s the acidity in the oranges that softens the skin from inside as well as the hot water from without.
The recipe I got from The Times last year was 10 Seville oranges (you have to use your judgement there if you have very large or small ones!), 2 lemons, 1.5 litres water, 2 kg sugar. I was doubtful but it’s brilliant and I will do it again this year.
I always use my pressure cooker to make grapefruit marmelade. I first eat the grapefruits and save the skins then cut them up with i lemon, add a pinch of bicarb, cover with water and pressure for 10 mins at 15lbs. Then I cool it quickly under the tap to open and add the same volume of sugar and then cook as normal. No waiting overnight. This makes a lovely bitter marmelade.
It seemed like my mum always had something in the pressure cooker when I was a ‘girl’. It isn’t something I have every used myself but worth thinking about after the comments above x
umm.. that photo looks good, I could just about pick up that plate and go and munch in a corner. :o)
I just got a pressure cooker, and it’s my new favorite thing. It’s electric, and has lots of safety gizmos built in, so I don’t fear an explosion (much). When I see things cooking for hours on the stovetop, I’m afraid I think less about the nostalgia value and more about the propane bill. The pressure cooker cooks things like stews and soups for about (I did the math) a quarter the price. Less energy is used, fewer pots are dirtied, and the cook can walk away once the lid is on. And now, I know I can even make marmalade!
I am all with you on pressure cookers! Not only is it almost like having an unexploded bomb merrily sitting on your stove its sort of not right in ‘some things just are better with time’ sort of way.
I know they make diamonds now ( and good luck to them ) by subjecting carbon to 800,000 lbs per square inch of pressure but I still think the ones they find in the ground made in the big bang of our universe and scattered through out the cosmos look far better on the finger of a proud girl announcing her engagement. A far cry from marmalade and split peas, but sometimes, its not the result, its the getting there that is most of the fun.
Although the toast looks yummy.
I find the speed with which the marmalade cooked amazing. I have thought about getting a pressure cooker but cannot seem to do it. My mother unfortunately had a phobia about that particular kitchen tool. Apparently when she was a child, her next door neighbour’s pressure cooker lid embedded itself in their kitchen ceiling. The experience had a lasting effect on her viewpoint of pressure cookers. Perhaps I can over come this inherited dislike, who knows? Marmalade in an hour,yummy!!
There is nothing like a slice of toast with good marmelade. Yum.
That’s a great idea! My pressure cooker is little-used, but I’m not scared of it 🙂 It really comes into its own for cooking pulses.
If I can get some bitter oranges at the Fête de la Bigarade this year, I’ll try this method. However, my cooker is aluminium. But I think it would be OK to cook the oranges in the dragon, then switch to a more suitable pan for the actual marmalade making, to avoid nasty taste.
Used your easy seville marmalade at the weekend and it SET!!! first time in 3 years, was about to give up but it worked and is lovely – Thank you.