It's marmalade time!!

[p.penn]

Seville oranges are in he shops, for a very limited time, so get those preserving pans out and make some marmalade!

Seville marmalade is absolutely superb, and well worth making. For those of you new to it, this recipe is simply fab. If you want to make more, I would suggest doing it in two batches.

SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE, makes approx 4-5 lbs

Before you start you will need a large preserving pan, ultra clean jam jars (optomistically 5lb worth), waxed discs, covers, labels etc. Put some saucers/small plates in freezer. Put jam jars in a cool oven to warm through.

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 lbs seville oranges - approx 6 (must be seville)
3 lbs white granulated sugar
2 pts water
juice of a lemon

METHOD

Put oranges and lemon juice in pan - cover with water and weigh oranges down with saucer if they bob up. Bring to boil then simmer for 1 hour until tender. Strain over bowl, returning all liquid to the saucepan.

Cool for a little while then halve the oranges. Scoop all contents into the pan (which has liquid in). Bring to boil and cook for 6 mins with no lid before straining thru seive into bowl. Use wooden spoon to squeeze any juice out of pulp. Remains in seive should be quite dry. Discard or compost remains. Return juice to pan.

Slice the orange skins according to taste - I like them medium. Add to juice in pan, add sugar and stir until dissolved over a LOW heat. This is important as if not totally dissolved maramalade will be granular.

Once dissolved turn heat up high and boil RAPIDLY until setting point is reached. Tes after 12 mins.

To test for setting point, get saucer out of freezer and put spoon of marmalade on it then leave it for a minute or so to cool. If it wrinkles when pushed gently with a finger, it is ready! If not, re-test again after 5 mins or so

To disperse any scum, add 1 tsp butter at this point.

Leave for 10 mins for the marmalade to cool slightly before ladling into jars. This prevents the peel from sinking to the bottom of the pot.

Cover with waxed disc and cellophane circle immediately. Label when cold.

If you buy extra oranges while they are in season, they can be frozen and cooked from frozen in the first stage. allowing a bit of extra time.

[Mo]

Thanks for reminding me. OH likes marmalade (too sour for me).

[By Halves]

Interesting method in that recipe, I might give it a try. My OH got oranges intending to juice them but then realised they were Seville ones so I shall be making some marmalade with them instead.

You can make sweet marmalades too Mo, I've used sweet satsumas before and the bonus is that you can reduce the added sugar considerably. The one we're eating at the moment is grapefruit and ordinary eating oranges which is a nice medium.

[albertajune]

I didn't realise it was that time, so thanks for the reminder. You can't beat homemade marmalade and I always make a few jars of Seville when they are about.

[silverback]

How would you incorporate whisky into the marmalade?.

[p.penn]

I would think you would stir it in before putting it into jars.

[Totally Scrambled]

How would you incorporate whisky into the marmalade?.

Once it's reached the setting stage add 4-5 tablespoons of whisky and stir it in. Leave to cool for 10 mins and carry on as per above recipe
Dom

[silverback]

Thanks for that , although a bit disappointed about only 4-5 table spoons of whisky to go in!

[Mo]

All the more in the bottle for you.

[p.penn]

Well, typical me. Bought plenty of oranges, gave one batchs worth away, and the rest stayed sitting in my fridge waiting for the marmalade fairy to come

I eventually got my finger out last week, and thought I would use my electric jam maker to make it a bit easier, and I noticed there was a whole fruit recipe in the accompanying instruction book. It took more oranges, so off out I went to get more.

So, got a bit delayed during the day, and boiled them (but it said for 2 hours not 1???) and then found I had to pick my grandchildren up from school and cook tea. Fine, I thought I could easily continue after they had gone.

So at 6.30pm I resumed. Easy I thought, just cut open the oranges and scrape out the innards.....but NO!! This new recipe said to cut open, save flesh but remove all the pips OMG, what a nightmare. 2kilos of oranges = 74.5 million pips So 2 hours later, I had eventually done that!!

So started marmalade at 11am, finished at 9pm. Big lesson learned was remember to read through a new recipe before starting! So ironic that I put my tried and tested recipe on here and then used a different one!!

[p.penn]

Just a reminder that it's that time of year again! I have just made mine and it's duch a great feeling!