Everyday Cooking is a feature of laterlife.com run by Rosemary Martin. 

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March 2011

Sweet Marmalade

Do you find Seville orange marmalade too bitter? Try making sweet orange marmalade. I have been making my own for several years, using whatever sweet oranges are on sale in my local shops. My favourite type is the navel orange which is a sweet, usually seedless orange having at its apex a navel-like formation enclosing an underdeveloped fruit. They are also very juicy.. 

Ingredients for 4.5 kg of marmalade

1350g sweet oranges
2 lemons
2.8kg Jam sugar
3.5 litres cold water

Method

1. Halve the oranges and lemons and squeeze out the juice into a heavy based pan, together with 3.5 litres of cold water.

2. Using a dessert spoon scrape out the pith and pips from the shells into a square piece of muslin. Tie corners together diagonally and make a handle with a long piece of string; drop this into the liquid, tying the string to the handle to keep it from falling in.

3. chop as much of the peel as you think you'd like into fine, short strips and put these in the liquid together with the rest of the uncut orange shells. Bring to the boil and simmer for 90 minutes.

4. Remove the muslin bag and squeeze out as much excess juice and pectin as you can into the liquid. Remove any loose orange shells and discard.

5. Remove the pan from the heat and add the jam sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to the heat and boil for 10 - 15 minutes or until setting point is reached.

6. Remove from heat and add a knob of butter to eliminate any scum. Leave for 15 minutes. Stir to distribute the peel and ladle into sterilised jars.

Tips

• To sterilise jars the easy way, put them in a roasting tin in the oven for 20 minutes at a temperature 100c
• If you like a thicker marmalade or have trouble getting a set, put in a half or whole bottle of Certo apple pectin.
• To test for setting point, put a plate in the fridge to cool and add a very small amount of the marmalade; put this back in the fridge for 5 minutes and the marmalade will wrinkle up when you run your finger through it, when it has reached setting point.
• Use jam sugar it has more pectin than preserving sugar.
• Use a jam funnel when ladling the marmalade into jars
• Ladle marmalade into jars and put lids on as hot as possible to get a good seal. You will hear the lids popping as the marmalade cools down.
• Add 300ml whisky for orange whisky marmalade.

 

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