Perfect Seville orange marmalade recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 265 comments
As the topping for the best slice of toast of the day, good marmalade is a joy. We like it dark, chunky, hand cut and never in moderation.
Marmalade was the first preserve that we made. We were so proud of it that we could hardly bear to move it from the worktop to the larder, let alone eat it. Eventually we opened the first jar and lavished it on slice after slice of hot buttered toast.
We immediately christened it Intellectual Marmalade as so much ground work, research and care had gone into its manufacture. Visitors who spotted the label were wary of it at breakfast. Would it somehow have an effect on the brain? When they saw us slopping it onto our toast they happily did the same. No one ever mentioned the name.
We like dark old fashioned marmalade. We couldn’t find a recipe for this so we based our recipe on the classic Seville Orange Marmalade in Delia’s Complete Illustrated Cookery Course
Marmalade can be a bit of a palaver. It starts with hunting down and bagging the fruit. Despite many forays I couldn’t find any Seville oranges this year. Just as I was about to give up I saw them twinkling out in the Cambridge market on Monday. Investing my small change in three kilos of the fruit, I staggered back to the car park with just enough cash to release Jalopy from the gloomy depths.
Having made no notes on the timings of our Intellectual Marmalade recipe, I couldn’t face another day/night of babysitting the bubbling vats. I was determined to find the best old fashioned marmalade recipe, with proper timings. A couple of days ago I discovered a Dark Chunky Marmalade recipe on Delia Online. It’s made in two steps, so it’s great if you are working full time as you can spread the process over two evenings (I would recommend a spreading the task over a weekend unless your evening starts at 15.00 hours). Seville oranges will survive happily in the fridge for at least a week. They keep for months in the freezer and, if you have the room, you can stash them and make fresh marmalade throughout the year.
We have finally made Delia’s Dark Chunky Marmalade. We combined her recipe with our method and simmered ours for a good six hours before setting point was reached. It looks divine and tastes even better than my mum’s. I’m amazed that Paddington Bear hasn’t dropped by.
N.B. If you try this recipe, the poaching liquid is used in the final marmalade. The recipe isn’t very clear on this point and I found the answer in the DeliaOnline forum (press the Community button on her site to access this great resource). Also you need a very large pot! To stop all the peel rising to the top of the jars let the marmalade cool a little before bottling in sterlised jars.
Update January 14th 2011
We now have several new recipes for Seville orange marmalade to suit every taste:
A super three fruit marmalade. A best seller on our gateside stand.
Easy Seville orange marmalade. This fine shredded marmalade is a classic and gets the thumbs up from my mum and is really easy to make!
Seville orange and quince marmalade. Lots of deep flavours in this orange and quince mix.
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Hi Pauline
I no longer live in your neck of the woods but it might be worth trying Borough Market. Someone came on the blog a week ago who had found quinces there so you never know. It’s worth a trip anyway.
Their website has a list of the stands and contact details so you can let your fingers do the walking
this is obviously the discussion to join for marmaladology. Help – I’ve left it late & can’t find Seville oranges. Mildred’s recipe for grapefruit orange & lemon looks like a delicious alternative but I’d still like to try & find Seville oranges Does anyone know where I can, in and around London UK?
Hi Willie
You can use your jam thermometer to make home made yoghurt https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=594 Very easy and good fun. I like you bought a jam thermometer and it just had the one outing.
You are now more of an expert in the marmalade making stakes than I am so I can’t answer your questions. We just make the same recipe each year and it works each time – but it is a long slow process!
Making jams and jellies is much easier and I think that you’d enjoy the process.
Hi Mildred
I have enjoyed reading your comments as Willie™s odyssey progressed and learnt a lot too!
Thank you so much for all your help. Between you, you have created a brilliant archive on the pitfalls and successes of marmalade making.
Good point about the thermometer. I haven’t made toffee yet and must give it a go!
Congratulations Willie, I am as excited about your marmalade as you are!
I can answer some of your queries, and maybe Fi or another contributor will be able to offer some input as well.
Firstly, The G2 article yesterday: I agree with you, how can the peel be cooked in half an hour? I have cooked the fruit whole several times to see what I thought, but I still prefer to slice it first as related in my method above, and it has always needed 2 hours of gentle simmering. Again, it just shows how confusing it can be when information such as this is given. Maybe there is a valid answer . . .
Next, the fruit juice: yes! I add it along with the sugar as per my recipe, it seems to improve the flavour adding at that stage, in my opinion!
Next, getting the pan contents up to temp: This can depend on the cooker partly, does the hob really get hot enough? But mainly, I think, it is the pan – the size and construction of its base. I must admit to being a big fan of Mauviel copper pans, indeed they are the only ones that really ‘work’ with our cooker, an electric range with big square hotplates. I always turn it up a couple of hours before I start marmalading to get it really hot! Test your pan, half fill it with cold water and if it doesn’t bring it to the boil quite quickly (and I haven’t ever timed it, you just have to judge it) then it isn’t going to get the marm up to the boil very well. And now I wonder how full is the pan when the marmalade (ie the sugar, fruit and water) is in the pan? Too full and it won’t heat up and boil correctly. That is why Maslin Pans are wide and open (and the Mauviel one is almost 40 cm across the top). This way, when everything is in they are not too full and there is plenty of area to allow it to boil rapidly.
There is ONE thing I am sure of, experience! Keep making it and really concentrate on what is happening during the vital last stages. Certainly, it is difficult to detail every little thing, as I have said before there are little things that you do and just take for granted, and maybe they are not conveyed in the final recipe. One thing comes to mind, don™t stir it too much once the sugar has dissolved (and it MUST be dissolved before the marm is heated too much). I don™t like to get any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan even, if I do I make sure they are washed back down with some of the liquid in the pan. An adequate thermometer is useful (mine is a Salton clip on the pan sort), and I always check the temp even when I am sure it has reached 104c. And you will need one when you make toffee!
So, to conclude (!!) Keep making your marmalade and enjoy it! And when the time comes try making some jams and jellies if you don™t already do so. What could be better than seeing a row of jewel coloured jars of delicious home-made preserves, and waking up to some delicious toast spread thickly with your very own marmalade?
Thank you for sharing your experiences , I have really enjoyed reading your account 🙂
Hi Fiona and Mildred. Like Fionah I too have had success at last – and I can empathise with Fionah’s excitement and sense of achievement. I used Mildred’s Jan 4th recipe and was grateful for Fiona’s tip from last July about squeezing the muslin bag. I must say I didn’t find my new thermometer very helpful – it confirmed that I was as hot as I was going to get, and that was that. Any offers for a ‘used-only-once’ sugar thermometer? However, it did take 40 minutes to get to the ‘stiffening’ stage. I was beginning to get worried. Any ideas why it would have taken so long? Anyway, the result is a beautifully tasting and perfectly set marmalade, different from the Seville orange taste – a bit sharper, but really gorgeous.
I believe that experience can be one of our wisest teachers, so I want to learn from my five attempts if I possibly can. Are there elements in the different recipes and ways of doing things that are purely subjective, for example, based on no more than the personal preference of the marmalade-maker, or are there some commonsensical things that we should always adhere to? For example, I would welcome comments on the following:
My first recipe from Videojug (an internet recipe site) had me cutting the rind and pith off the oranges before they were squeezed. Rind and pith were cut as usual, juice went into the water, and flesh and pips went into the muslin bag. This was a straightforward preparation. Yet, my fourth recipe, from Diana Henry in Market Kitchen (a uktvfood programme), had me halving the oranges and lemon, squeezing out the juice, putting the pips only into the muslin bag, and cutting all the skin, with attached pith and flesh and putting it all into the water with the juice. I must say, Diana Henry’s recipe was easier to do and suprisingly gave as clear a marmalade as any of the other recipes I used, despite puttin all the pith and squeezed flesh into the water.
Your recipe, Mildred, and Delia’s seem to me to be somewhere in between, cutting up the rind and pith, and putting all the flesh and pips in the muslin bag.
And then, into the marmalade melting-pot yesterday fell Tim Hayward’s article in the Guardian. He poached the oranges whole for 30 minutes and allowed to cool, but he didn’t add the cut-up rind until the sugar stage – would the rind be soft enough after only half-an-hour poaching?
And finally, why in your recipe, Mildred, do you hold back the fruit juice until the sugar stage? (I was surprised that I got a full pint of juice in your recipe.) Other recipes would have me add the juice to the water at the beginning.
I’d be interested in folk’s observations about the different recipes and ways of doing things.
What an odyssey this has been. And the really helpful and pleasant company I’ve had during my odyssey has made all the difference. When my grandchildren ask me what was the most exciting thing I did in my retirement, I shall tell them it was learning to make proper marmalade with the experts. Many thanks to you all.
Now, roll on the summer when I can get to those Seville oranges in the freezer.
Oh Fionah, I am so glad it worked – well worth the effort 😉 Thanks for letting us know!
Hi Mildred
I did tip the marmalade back with the juice of another lemon, and gave it another 15 minutes as you suggested. It worked a treat and I now have 6 jars of proper marmalade. thanks!
Hi Mildred
Thanks for this tip.
Hi Alison
If you follow the link in the post above to Delia’s recipe she gives a good balance of sugar to fruit. There are also lots of recipes included in the comments section of this post.
I am not a experienced enough marmalade maker to give you the balance of quantities myself!
I live in California, and have made mixed citrus and kumquat marmalade, but this is the first time I have seen (in this land of citrus!) Seville oranges in the store, so I bought some and found your fascinating comments when googling for a recipe. You don’t seem to have much discussion about quantities — the recipes I found elsewhere seem to use more sugar than other marmalades — do the proportions of about twice as much sugar as peel (in water to cover) juice sound about right? Do you have to add lemon to get it to gel adequately — I am afraid I am not a purist; I add pectin to my kumquat marmalade, though not to the mixed citrus.
There’s a jolly little marmalade experience, written by Tim Hayword, in today’s Guardian G2 section. Everyone is Marmalade-ing now!