Orange and Lemon Marmalade, Ian's
Orange and Lemon Marmalade, Ian’s
Ian Hoare
This is an easy marmalade to make. Seville oranges are the classic marmalade oranges and contain no sugar. For this reason you should not use other oranges in this recipe, but you can make lemon marmalade, by using nothing but the right weight of lemons.
Yield: 10 x 350 gm. pots (15 using metric quantities).
Ingredients
For American Measures
2 medium lemons plus
Seville oranges to give a 3 lb. total weight of fruit
6 lb. sugar
80 fl. oz. boiling water
Metric Measures
3 medium lemons plus
Seville oranges to give 2 kg. total weight of fruit
4000 gm. sugar
3300 ml. boiling water
Instructions
Wash oranges, scrubbing if necessary.
Put whole fruit in a pan with boiling water, bring back to boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until skin is so tender that it may easily be pierced with the head of a pin. Leave to cool and rest overnight.
Next day, put 1 small plate in the fridge, to test for setting pint later.
Remove oranges/lemons from the pan, leaving the liquid in the pan.
Quarter the oranges/lemons and separate pulp from peel using a spoon. If making lemon marmalade and the white pith left on the peel after removing the flesh is quite thick, scrape away about half of it and discard it before slicing the peel as below. Peel has to be sliced quite thinly.
Cut pulp into small pieces. Collect pips and return to the pan of liquid from step 4.
Boil liquid and pips for 5 minutes, then strain into a preserving pan (a large pan where it can boil at high temperature, without splashing around). Discard pips.
Meanwhile start sterilising pots and lids, put plate in the fridge to test for setting later and gather the other things you will need for bottling.
Add fruit and sugar to the pan and dissolve sugar over a low heat.
When sugar is completely dissolved, bring to boil, and boil fast 5-15 minutes, until setting point* is reached.
Cool for 10 minutes before pouring into warmed marmalade jars. This stops the fruit/peel from floating to the top.
*Setting point ;
Swirl the marmalade around with the spoon and then lift the ladle out of the marmalade vertically. Check the last few drops as they fall. If they tend to form a sheet, or drip in heavy globs in several places, it's worth trying the only really reliable test - the wrinkle test. Turn the heat right down/or off. Take the plate from the fridge, and after stirring the marmalade again, let a few dribbles fall on the plate. With experience you'll have a good idea just looking at it, by the way. Now pop the plate back in the fridge quickly, and leave it exactly 1 minute. Take it out again and using your forefinger, push through the flat blob of marmalade. If it is ready, it will wrinkle up in front of your finger as you push. If it does, move on to bottling. If not, cook another 5 minutes and test again.
Bottling ;
Take jars from oven kept at around 100?C. Drain lids kept in boiling water, in a colander. Shake to get rid of water. Place lids inside down, on sheets of paper towel.
Fill the jars right near to the brim, and put a lid on as quickly as possible. Tighten well (J-cloths help to hold things without burning your hand) and turn upside down. Reason for this; first of all, to re-sterilise the lid, in case any spores got onto them after removing from boiling water and before sealing down. Secondly and more importantly, to make a really good seal. By turning upside down as soon as the jars are filled, the consequent shaking creates a positive pressure inside the jars, which forces a tiny amount of marmalade into the interstices (cracks) between lid and jar, and making a perfect seal. After five minutes, turn the jars the right way up again. You'll never have a problem with any kind of mould or fermentation. And that's a promise from someone who makes 30 pots each of at least 10 different marmalades and has done so for 12 years. You do not need wax paper discs when you use this method.
Give them a preliminary wipe with a damp cloth, and repeat when cold before labelling and storing.
