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.
Leave a reply
Hi Sue Mac
I agree with Mildred, adding pectin gives the marmalade a horrid taste. I would try the lemon juice trick myself.
Hi Mildred
I even avoid ‘jam’ and ‘preserving’ sugar these days as both seem to give the preserve a synthetic taste.
Hi Willie M
Thank you so much for sharing your marmalade making experiences. Loved the tale of the neighbour calling and the effect on the marmalade.
Re bread. Mildred’s Undercover Bread recipe https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=496 is worth checking out. I use Marriages and Doves strong flour for bread making. The Waitrose strong Canadian flour is good too.
Mildred recommends two good books (in the post and in the comments section). She is an experienced bread maker and hopefully can advise you in much more depth than I can.
Be warned, Sue Mac. I had quite a number of runny jars – we called it our ‘Orange Dipping Sauce’ – beautifully clear and tasted wonderful, but it just hadn’t set. With hindsight, I wish I had kept it at that. However, I decided to do what Fionah did on 21st Feb – emptied them all into a pot, added lemon juice, and got it up to the boil, remembering the advice not to stir. I was aware that the window of the kitchen door needed a clean, so I did a bit of multi-tasking and started to clean the window while I was waiting for a set. The next-door neighbour appeared and started chatting. When I went back to my pot, it had caught on the bottom and was more of a toffee consistency. I tried to save it by cutting all the black bits of the rind before potting, but then later discovered that I couldn’t get it out of the pots – it was a gooey, gluey mess. So it all had to go out.
Good luck, Sue Mac, but leave the window-washing for another day. If you decide to try it, I’d love to know how it turns out.
I’ve enjoyed the cameraderie that comes with marmalade-making – I give a jar of my decent marmalade to family or friends, and blow me, do they not give me a jar of theirs in return. Having sampled a few different marmalades over the past few weeks, I have invented a new measure for marmalade – I call it the ‘dripping factor’: that is, the degree (on a ten point scale) to which it is wise to hold your toast spread with marmalade over the plate while you are eating – in order that the plate will catch the drips. I am pleased to say that my most recent dripping factor is zero, but a neighbour’s has proved to be more around 6 or 7 – i.e. I must hold the toast over the plate or there’s every chance a dollop will fall on the table cover.
We are still so enjoying Mildred’s mixed fruits marmalade of January 3rd recipe. Thank you, Mildred: I’m so grateful for this site and discovering your tangy spicy marmalade.
Mildred, you asked about bread-making – I’m not sure if a marmalade site is the place to discuss this, Fiona? But yes, I used to make my own bread about 30 years ago. I mixed stoneground wholemeal flour with chapatti flour (I lived in the Midlands then and could get it easily). It was really tasty, everything about it was wonderful, and I did this for a number of years every Saturday morning. I tried making bread again a few months ago, but I seem to have lost the knack. What flour(s) would you recommend to make bread worthy of the wonderful marmalade this site has enabled and encouraged me to make?
Hi Sue, I once tried adding that pectin powder . . . it was awful! Not sure why . . . .
It sounds as though others have had success with the added lemon juice. A bit of a faff I know, but worth it if it works 😉 Good luck!
hi help my marmalade tastes great but runny going to try adding lemon juice as sugested ,but could l just add pectin powder and boil again .
Hi Marsha
I don’t think that living at 5,000 ft should make a difference. The setting agent is the pectin.
I’ve tried ways. 1) boil for 2 hours with rinds – left a very bitter taste but did set; 2) boil for 2 hours with no rinds – never did set but tastes good.
so, what does it take to reach the 104C point? I live at 5,000 ft, does that make a difference – or is it merely the pectin?
Marsha
Hi Willie
Thanks for rubber stamping Mildred’s recipe. I’m impressed that you are making another batch.
I admire you for cracking the marmalade conundrum!
Hi Mildred
We haven’t made marmalade this year as we have so much left from last year. It’ll be summer before we need to make some more and I’m definitely going to try your recipe then!
Hi Pauline
I’d love to hear how you get on!
Thanks fn, will try Borough Market – Brindisia Shop (Spanish) looks very likely and as you say the Market is worth a visit. Also, Willie M, I take your point about the three-fruiter from Mildred and will definitely have a go. I take comfort that Mildred thinks this year’s Sevilles are less good than other years’ anyway… What a find this site is!
Hi Willie, making ANOTHER batch – you sound to be in full production mode now!! Wonderful! I knew you would enjoy it once you got ‘it cracked’. I have to agree too, we are enjoying our 3 (or 4) fruits marmalade more than the Seville at present. I would add though that I felt the Seville oranges this year were not quite as good as last year (in my opinion).
Do you make your own bread I wonder . . .
Pauline, if you can’t get Seville oranges, you could do a lot worse than follow Mildred’s grapefruit, orange, lemon and limes recipe. We have been so taken with it that I made another batch yesterday. It is so tangy and fruity, with a refreshing sharpness that I don’t quite find in Seville orange marmalade. Well worth a try. I think it might become our marmalade of choice.