I saw some Seville oranges at the grocery store and had to pick them up. It was definitely an impulse buy, I don't usually buy fresh fruit and certainly didn't know there would be enough of a market for these oranges for the stores to stock them. Getting these meant I had to make marmalade.
I'm a bit of a marmalade snob. A lot of store-bought marmalade is way too sweet, or too chunky, or too packed with ingredients that don't belong there. Even the English brand I like best tastes over-cooked and too hard set. In the past I've made marmalade from canned prepared oranges, and liked it better than what I could get at the store, but still you're at the mercy of how the oranges were originally prepared. So I always wanted to try it from scratch.
seeds or pieces escape the net
caramelization of sugar, due to time cooking and inverting in acid environment
don't know if lemons are required
cut no more than 1.5 mm thick, or sugar won't fully penetrate during cooking time
2nd batch, added water during cooking because it looked dry, but when I added sugar it suddenly was very liquid, and I had to cook off all that water. I think you just have to have faith in the amount of water.
2nd batch, 1070 g oranges (about 8) and 280 g lemons (2), soaked in 614 g water (about 3 cups), plus added additional 3 cups during boiling:
- 1118 g with all fruit, minus seeds
- 1676 g sugar
- 2909 g: final weight
- 108 g added water was all that remained
So recipe is juice and seed fruit, cut peels, and weigh that amount. Add half the weight in water and the seeds in a bag, and soak overnight, weighted down to ensure it's submerged. Next day, simmer all that uncovered 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove seeds, and squeeze out pectin and return that to mixture. Add sugar 1.5 times the weight of the fruit and boil at medium high (as high as reasonable to minimize caramelization of sugar), stirring occasionally to avoid burning and sticking. Cook to 218 - 220 °F (probably 218 ° sufficient). Jar and seal.
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