Marmalade advice....

[Mrs Miggins]

There are many trees in the neighbourhood bearing citrus fruits and I intend to commit a little citrus theft and make some marmalade (shhh....don't tell anyone).

I've found a tree by the river that I think has tangerines and we are getting loads of lemons from our neighbour and I'm thinking tangerine and lemon could be a good conmbination.

My question for the seasoned marmalade makers is....should I add some pectin or will it set on it's own? I've never made marmalade before but I have made various jams and I know that Seville oranges have lots of natural pectin and I think all citrus fruits have a fair bit.

And if anyone has a good recipe for this fruit combination, or a straight lemon marmalade because the tree next door is positively groaning with them...post away!

 

[dessiato]

I've used all sorts of citrus for marmalade in the past. I've never had any problems with setting. I have always used a basic recipe and just mixed the different fruits in my preferred ratio until I get the weight I need. I've never had any fail.

Just make sure the fruit you acquire really is what you think it is.

 

[RubyToogood]

Personally I'd use some pectin these days to be on the safe side. It's not going to hurt.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Cool - thanks guys

 

[AnnaKarpik]

Plenty of pectin in the pips.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

How did your marmalade turn out Mrs Miggins ?

I’m bumping this thread because it’s the most recent marmalade thread, and because I wanted to show off.

I’ve just made a batch of excellent Seville orange marmalade.

I mainly followed Delia Smith’s recipe.
Traditional Seville Orange Marmalade

But instead of using special sugar I just used all the sugar I had in the house, which magically added up to almost exactly the 2 kg I needed for the recipe. I was making it late at night (I seem to do baking and jam making at bedtime for some reason...) and didn’t want to wait til the shops were open to get proper sugar so I used a mixture of jaggery, dark and light muscovado sugar, golden caster sugar and white caster sugar with vanilla pods in it (from my baking cupboard).

It’s come out dark and delicious, proper sour Seville flavour with a lovely rich dark undernotes of the sugars. I’ve had some on hot buttered toast and my mouth is still ringing with the flavour.

And it’s set properly, and I remembered to let it cool before putting it into jars so the peel is all through it not clumped at the top.

I’ve got about 5kg, which should last me the year.

Lots of washing up to do now though.

 

[Sue]

It’s come out dark and delicious, proper sour Seville flavour with a lovely rich dark undernotes of the sugars. I’ve had some on hot buttered toast and my mouth is still ringing with the flavour.

And it’s set properly, and I remembered to let it cool before putting it into jars so the peel is all through it not clumped at the top.

I’ve got about 5kg, which should last me the year.

It's freezing in my office and I'm really hungry. I am sooooo jealous.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Sorry Sue

It was really good.

Hope you’ve got something lovely lined up for when you get home.

 

[Saul Goodman]

You won't need pectin if you remove and boil up all the pith and squeeze it through a muslin cloth.

 

[campanula]

I don't make as much marmalade as jellies and jams...but I always seem to have to boil the buggery out of it to get a set (up to 40 minutes)...although once that point is reached, it sets well with no need for anything added (as the acidity is naturally much higher than with jams which helps with getting a set).

 

[campanula]

lemon curd.

 

[mango5]

I made seville marmalade and lemon curd in the last month.
seville orange marmalade | recipes from Riverford
Deeelishass!

 

[Sue]

Sorry Sue

It was really good.

Hope you’ve got something lovely lined up for when you get home.

Good.

I remembered i've some homemade bramble jelly a friend gave me so while not as good as marmalade, not too shabby either.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Good.

I remembered i've some homemade bramble jelly a friend gave me so while not as good as marmalade, not too shabby either.

I love bramble jelly! And I’ve not had a chance to make any for a few years. I hope you had it on really lovely toast with loads of butter, while sitting down.

 

[rubbershoes]

Marmalade season is here

I've been making Seville marmalade this month and will probably do some lemon and lime next month

 

[contadino]

 

[Sue]

Stop taunting me with your homemade marmalades.

 

[rubbershoes]

First batch of the year. I didn't have any muslin bags so cooked the oranges whole and then squeezed and scraped them. Not sure how it'll turn it out

 

[sojourner]

I really fancy having a crack at this - anyone got a favourite recipe? Preferably the least-arsing-about recipe?

 

[existentialist]

I really fancy having a crack at this - anyone got a favourite recipe? Preferably the least-arsing-about recipe?

Delia's isn't bad - 1kg oranges, 2kg sugar, 2.5l water (though I am a bit dubious about the quantity of water, and will report back later this week )

 

[sojourner]

Delia's isn't bad - 1kg oranges, 2kg sugar, 2.5l water (though I am a bit dubious about the quantity of water, and will report back later this week )

Cheers. As much as I love Delia, she does tend to overcomplicate things. I always end up cutting steps out of her recipes cos they're so faffy.

 

[existentialist]

Cheers. As much as I love Delia, she does tend to overcomplicate things. I always end up cutting steps out of her recipes cos they're so faffy.

Oh, I'm more interested in the ingredients ratio than the method

My method is - cook oranges in pressure cooker with some of the water (30 min - you can do it in a conventional saucepan, but it usually requires an hour or so before the peel is tender enough). Allow to cool, then halve the oranges and scrape the flesh and pith out of of them. Put these into a muslin square over a bowl to catch all the orangey liquid.

Put the water from the pressure cooker and the remainder into your preserving pan, and suspend the muslin "bag" of flesh-and-pith in the water - allow to gently boil for an hour or so, to extract the juice and pectin.

Meanwhile, chop your peel to taste.

Take the muslin package out, and wring as much of the liquid out of it as possible into the liquid, along with any dribblings you caught while scraping out the oranges. I use a wooden spoon as a kind of handle to get the neck wound nice and tight, to achieve this.

Add the chopped peel and sugar to the liquid, and bring to a rolling boil, stirring regularly. Use the usual saucer-in-the-freezer test to determine when the jam has begun to set. The pectin needs 15 minutes at a fast boil (approx 105C) to do its thing.

Allow to cool slightly, then pour into jars and seal.

Her (complicated) recipe is here: Traditional Seville Orange Marmalade

 

[Sue]

Delia's isn't bad - 1kg oranges, 2kg sugar, 2.5l water (though I am a bit dubious about the quantity of water, and will report back later this week )

I'm going to pretend I haven't seen that orange:sugar ratio.

 

[rubbershoes]

I'm going to pretend I haven't seen that orange:sugar ratio.

Tbf you don't have big spoonfuls of marmalade at a time.

 

[Sue]

Tbf you don't have big spoonfuls of marmalade at a time.

 

[iona]

I'm going to pretend I haven't seen that orange:sugar ratio.

I was looking at recipes the other day because I fancy making a few different flavours, and there was a Guardian recipe for reduced sugar marmalade that I might try out purely because it uses a grapefruit and I happened to get one reduced to 19p the other day...

 

[rubbershoes]

My first two batches this year have ended up very different colours. I think the left one must have been cooked for longer

 

[TopCat]

 

[TopCat]

Just tried the product. Yummy.

 

[rubbershoes]

Making another batch. No idea how it'll turn out