How to make fresh Seville orange marmalade
The Cherry Tree’s Seville orange marmalade
With Seville orange season being so short, the best way to preserve the flavour of these intensely sweet and delicious oranges is to turn them into marmalade which you can then savour on toast over the coming months.
Ingredients
Makes 4.5 kilograms
1.3kg Seville oranges
2 lemons, juice only
2 litres water
2.5kg preserving or granulated sugar
Butter
Method
To sterilise the jars, wash with very hot water or put through the hot cycle of a dishwasher. Place the jars on a baking tray and slide into an oven (160˚C, fan 140˚C, gas mark 3, 325˚F) for 10 to 15 minutes. Keep them warm until filled with the marmalade.
Lightly butter the base of the saucepan to help prevent the marmalade catching.
Put the whole oranges and the lemon juice in the pan and cover with the water. If required, you can weigh down the oranges with a heat-proof plate to keep them submerged. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for two hours when the peel should be easily pierced with a fork and the mixture has reduced by at least half.
Warm half the sugar in a very low oven. Pour off the water from the oranges into a jug and tip the oranges into a bowl. Return the orange water in the jug to the pan.
Allow the oranges to cool, then cut in half. Scoop out all the pips and pith and add to the reserved orange water in the pan.
Bring to the boil for five minutes, then strain this liquid through a sieve into a bowl and press the pulp through with a spoon – it is high in pectin and gives marmalade a good set.
Pour half this liquid into a preserving pan. Cut the peel with a sharp knife into fine shreds. Add half the peel to the liquid in the preserving pan with the warm sugar. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, for about 10 to 12 minutes, then bring to the boil and bubble rapidly for 20 minutes until the setting point is reached.
Take the pan off the heat and skim impurities from the surface.
Leave the marmalade to stand in the pan for 20 minutes to cool a little and allow the peel to settle, then pot it in sterilised jars.
