Monday, August 20, 2012

Seville Orange Marmalade

1.5 kg Seville oranges, washed
2 kg organic raw sugar


Ten orange jars standing on a wall
Put the oranges into a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about one and a half hours or until the skins are soft and tender and easily pierced with a small knife.

Remove the oranges from the liquid, cut them in half and put them on a plate to cool. Once cool, scoop out the seeds with any pulp and push through a colander with the back of a large spoon. This mixture is full of pectin and very gelatinous and will set the marmalade.

Put the pulp mixture and seeds in a muslin bag (or in a fine mesh sieve floating) in the cooking liquid. Cut the halves in half again and cut them into thin strips or chunks, according to whether you like fine or chunky marmalade.

Seville oranges in their natural environment
Add the peel back into the cooking water with the sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10-15 minutes, skimming off any white impurities every so often, until setting point is reached.

The best way to test this is to drop a teaspoonful on to a small plate that has been in the fridge. If it sets after, say, a minute to a marmalade consistency, it's done; if not, continue boiling it and keep re-testing it. If you want a really thick marmalade, continue to boil until the sugar is almost caramelised.

Leave the marmalade to cool for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often, so that the pieces of orange suspend in the liquid.

happy cooking

Another method is this one below

Put the oranges in the saucepan and just cover them with water, bring to the boil and then simmer for up to an hour topping up the water occasionally. The rind should be soft by then so turn off the heat.

After the oranges have cooled somewhat cut them in half over the saucepan and scrape out all the flesh and pith to put back in the cooking water. The rind should be very thin at this point.

Boil the flesh, pith and pips in the water until it starts to turn a soft gold. While this is happening use a sharp knife or kitchen scissors to cut the rind into very thin slices. Some say the thinner the rind is cut the better, other prefer it chunky.

Fix a double layer of muslin, which should be scalded with hot water, to a jelly strainer stand and pour the contents of the saucepan through it into another stainless steel saucepan.

Measure the volume of the liquid and add an equal amount of sugar. Finally add the cut up rind.

Then it’s just a matter of boiling it until the setting point is reached. This point is reached when a little of the marmalade is put onto a cold saucer and when cool it wrinkles with a gentle push of a finger. Put into warm sterilised jars and seal immediately.

Navel Orange version as made in a "seen on TV" Melbourne kitchen
Early Tasmanian advertisement for Seville Oranges

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser Fri 7 Jan 1825  p. 1.



1 comment:

graynomad said...

Beautiful! We want some! Ruth says that you could send some in a plastic container so that it would be lighter!
Much love from Scarletti Alan and Ruth xxx