Marmalade

It’s that time of year, when Seville oranges are in the shops and marmalade is the name of the game.

For the competitively-minded, the Marmalade Awards are an annual competition to find the best marmalades across a number of categories. Whatever your forte  –  plain Seville, dark and chunky, boozy – or even if you are a complete novice, there’s an opportunity to enter and get feedback on your jar from those doyennes of home-produce, the Womens Institute.

Each jar is tasted and scored out of twenty. Less-than-perfect specimens are given hand-written feedback on where improvements can be made. High-scoring jars get certificates. It’s great fun.

I’ve entered for a number of years, some more successful than others – and have garnered a range of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The recipes here have both won Gold for me over the years and are ideal for the novice marmalade maker as they are small batch recipes, one making four and the other just two x 450g jars.

Both of these recipes were found in handwritten recipe books, one from the middle of the 19th century and the other from the late 17th century.

Dundee Marmalade

1850

This marmalade is simplicity itself: boil the oranges, chop, then simmer with sugar for 30 minutes. I’ve made only one adjustment to the original recipe, which is to change the water the oranges are boiled in, in order to remove the harshness of the oil contained in the skins. If this sounds like too much hassle, then by all means use the same water all the way through – the result will be on the feisty side!

Top Tip: The cooked oranges will freeze excellently, so if you like this recipe, or have limited storage space for jars, cook a large number of fruit and then freeze until required. The recipe can be easily scaled, so you can use just a couple of oranges to make one large jar at a time.

Seville oranges
granulated sugar

• Put the oranges into a pan with enough water to cover them. They will float to begin with, but gradually become heavier as they absorb moisture.
• Bring the pan to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer.
• After 25 minutes, bring a second pan of water to a simmer.
• Transfer the oranges to the second pan and continue simmering.
• Discard the first lot of cooking water and scrub the saucepan. The bitter orange oil will have gathered on the sides of the pan. Fill the pan with fresh water and bring to a simmer.
• Repeat the above until the oranges have been simmered for 2 hours – 4 changes of water.
• Lift out the oranges and set aside to drain and cool.
• When cooled enough to handle, cut the oranges in half and remove only the pips.
• Chop the rest of the fruit as liked. I prefer to slice it by hand into strips and then into thin shreds with a sharp knife.
• Weigh the fruit and for every 450g, put 600ml of water and 900g granulated sugar into a clean pan.
• Heat the sugar and water gently, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar is dissolved.
• Add the chopped peel and pulp and bring to a gentle boil.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches setting point of 105°C. For 450g of fruit, this will take about 30 minutes. Smaller or larger quantities of fruit will require slight adjustment of this time.
• Pour into clean, warmed jars and seal whilst hot.
• Clean the jars and label once cold.

Bridget Hyde’s Very Good Marmalade

1680

This recipe is unusual in that it uses the setting qualities of the pectin in green apples and the luxury of wine to create a light and brightly-flavoured, shred marmalade. It is very straightforward to follow the recipe as written, but equally easy to use some of the fruit cooked in the previous recipe, so the recipe below will follow this adaptation. Even without the original musk and ambergris perfuming the result, this is a delicious and delicate marmalade. Any sweet, dessert white wine can be used, however for my Gold-winning entrant in the Marmalade Awards I sought out some Muscat de Frontignan, whose richly perfumed aromas of citrus and honey perfectly complements the fruit in this marmalade. Reflecting the high cost of the ingredients of the time, this recipe makes just two jars per batch.

225g granulated sugar
300ml sweet dessert white wine, Muscat de Frontignan for something really special
150ml water
450g green apples – Granny Smith or Bramley
3 Seville oranges – cooked as above
225g granulated sugar
1 lemon – optional
1 sweet orange – optional

• Put the first portion of sugar, the white wine and water into a saucepan.
• Chop the apples into 2cm pieces and add to the pan also, cores, seeds and all.
• Cut the Sevilles in half and use a teaspoon to scrape out all of the flesh, membranes and seeds. Add this to the saucepan as well.
• Simmer the contents of the saucepan gently over medium low heat until the apple pieces become translucent.
• While the apples are simmering, slice the cooked peel into thin shreds.
• When the apples are translucent, strain the liquid of the pan through a sieve, pressing down on the solids to extract all of the liquid.
• Rinse the pan and return it to the heat with the wine syrup.
• Add the remaining sugar and stir until dissolved
• Add the shredded peel and simmer until it reaches setting point of 105°C, which will take around 20-30 minutes.
• Taste and adjust the finished flavour to your own liking by adding some freshly-squeezed lemon and/or orange juice.
• Pour into clean, warmed jars and seal whilst hot.
• Clean and label once cold.