Seville Orange Marmalade

I was working up a batch of SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE last night and I went to check the recipe on SAVING THE SEASON, only to realize that I've never actually posted the recipe. Egads!

After trying several techniques this winter, here is what I've found:

1: TASTE: I like thin strips of peel—not bits or chunks or ribbons or snippets—suspended in a clear jelly. For once, I don't want any pulp.

2: TECHNIQUE: It isn't necessary to soak the fruit overnight before cooking it, as long as you use enough water to allow ample cooking time to extract the pectin and soften the peel, because....

3: TIP: It is important to cook the peel completely before adding sugar.

4: CONCLUSION: The cleverest way to make Seville orange marmalade is to cook the oranges whole before "chipping" them—ie, cutting them up—to reduce with sugar.

In other words, do what Thane does.

The recipe below is adapted from Thane Prince's somewhat scatterbrained Jellies, Jams & Chutneys: Preserving the Harvest, which was the first book I consulted when making my first batch of Seville orange marmalade all those weeks ago. Then I had to go and try other variations which I didn't like as much before getting a grip on "my" recipe, which took me back, at the end of my wanderings, to where I had begun. That's life. Or at least that's men: we like to reinvent the wheel.

So trust that this recipe works from a technical point of view. From the perspective of taste, this marmalade is very specific and probably not for everyone. I don't give it to people unless they swear to me that they understand about real Scottish marmalade made with real Seville oranges. The beauty of the preserve is that its moderately sweet jelly supports but does not smother the supple peels' oily citrus bite. You'll sense oranges in your sinuses for half an hour after eating this marmalade. I'm crazy for it.

NB: Two important notes. First, if you were to use pulp as Diana Kennedy does, you'd need to add substantially more sugar. Like 75% more. And second, sweet orange peel (from navels, Valencias etc) requires much less cooking time and so I don't include any with the Sevilles. Some recipes do, and you might want to, but what I'm looking for in my full-bore Scottish marmalade is long, consistently firm strips of peel.

SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE

3 pounds Seville oranges

2 quarts water

3 pounds organic or Muscovado sugar

optional: 3 tablespoons good Scotch

1  Scrub fruit well in cold water. If using store-bought fruit, also clean it with very hot water to remove all traces of wax.

2  Put whole fruit and water in a large kettle. Bring to a boil, cover and cook at a lively simmer for at least an hour, until the peels are soft and the fruits have started to "deflate" a bit. Diana Kennedy says they are done "when the handle of a wooden spoon can easily pierce the rind."

 

3  Remove oranges with a slotted spoon to cool and measure the remaining cooking liquid. You want to have 6 cups, so add more if necessary or reduce to the correct amount. Combine liquid and sugar in your preserving pan.

4  Once oranges are cool enough to handle, halve and scoop out seeds and pulp. Wrap all the seeds and pulp in a double-thickness of cheese cloth, tie into a secure bundle and add to the preserving pan.

5  Cut peels into very thin strips or any other shape you like. Add to the preserving pan.

6  Bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve sugar, then reduce at a moderate boil to the jell point, which will take something like 30 minutes. Once a jell set is achieved, remove from heat, stir in Scotch if you're using it, and ladle into jars to seal. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

YIELD

3 pounds Seville oranges yielded 4.5 pints marmalade

1 x pint

7 x 8 oz