The basic recipe for orange marmalade is quite simple, although it takes a little time. The best marmalade is made with Seville oranges. These are too bitter to eat, but when mixed with sugar, they make a delicious, aromatic preserve.
Seville oranges are only in season and available in stores for a few weeks in January and February. The rest of the year, one can make marmalade with other kinds of oranges, but it is worth waiting for the special flavour of true Seville orange marmalade.
Equipment for Making Jam
First, read the instructions for sterilizing canning jars.
- Preserving pan (a wide pot with heavy, burn-resistant bottom. a Dutch oven will do. However, it must be big enough to hold all the ingredients at a rolling boil without spilling.)
- Ladle
- Wooden spoon
- A canner (a large pot with a wire insert for sterilizing glass jars)
- About ten glass Mason jars with metal bands and lids
- A funnel with a mouth designed to fit the jars
- A jar lifter
- Tongs
- Basket strainer or equivalent
- Newspaper or dishtowel
Orange Marmalade Ingredients
- 5½ pounds (about 18) Seville oranges
- 5½ pounds sugar
- Water
How to Make Seville Orange Marmalade
- Poke a few holes in the oranges and cover them with water in a large pot. Bring the water to a boil and let the oranges boil for about an hour to reduce their bitterness. (This will make the whole house smell wonderful.)
- Cover the pot, take it off the stove and let it sit overnight with the oranges still immersed in the water. Some of them may have burst open during the boiling; that's fine.
- The next day: begin to sterilize the jars.
- Cut the oranges in half and scoop out any usable juice and pulp, discarding any seeds or hard, stringy pith or membrane.
- Cut the orange peel into thin matchsticks between ½-inch and 2 inches long, according to taste. Add the peel to the fruit pulp and juice.
- In the preserving pan, combine all the sugar with 5½ cups of fresh water and heat slowly while stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Add the reserved orange juice, pulp and skin, and bring to a boil, stirring carefully to make sure that the mixture does not burn. When it runs off the spoon in a thick ribbon instead of a trickle, or when it congeals if dropped onto a saucer that has chilled for a few minutes in the freezer, the marmalade has reached the setting point. (This may take 40 minutes or more.)
- Following the instructions given above for sterilizing the jars, ladle the marmalade into the warm jars, using a funnel. Wipe any spills off the rims, seal the jars to finger-tight and process in boiling water in the canner for at least a carefully-timed five minutes at a full rolling boil.
- Set the jars to cool overnight. Test the seal the next morning, and use immediately any that have not sealed tight.
Marmalade can keep for decades if it is properly sealed. In fact, older marmalade acquires a darker colour and a pleasantly smoky flavour. However, it is delightful right away, whether served on a hot buttered piece of toast, incorporated into a cake or pudding, or used to glaze duck, chicken or pork.
Sarah B. Hood - Author of We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Food and Toronto: The Unknown City.
