Recipe| Orange Marmalade

Homemade Orange Marmalade

Another item ticked off my ‘new stuff to make this year’ list. I have a weakness for good marmalade. I am not a big fan of jams, but the fruit pieces especially the citrus peel, in a marmalade is just too delicious! When I got about hunting a (easy, quick) recipe for an orange marmalade, I came across various methods- boiling the entire fruit to extract pectin, adding chemical pectin, soaking the fruit overnight etc. But the one on this amazing cook’s site, seemed most convincing and well illustrated with step by step pictures.

I have largely followed Elise’s recipe for seville orange marmalade, making just a few changes to suit what was available and well.. some just happened coz I had not read the recipe properly. 😦 But thankfully it did not affect the end result and I got a delicious citrus-y all natural (without any ugh preservative flavors) orange marmalade.

You will need:

1 kg valencia oranges ( I had 5 nos.)
1 cup of water
2 and half cups of sugar
Juice of 1 small lemon

Method (do check out the recipe on the simplyrecipes blog for amazing pictures, they really help):

– Juice the oranges on a juicer. From the half orange cups that you will get after extracting the juice, remove the pith and pulpy remains with a spoon or a butter knife.
– Tie the seeds, pulpy and pith remains in a muslin cloth and keep aside.
– Julienne orange peels as thin as possible. Check that you use only the good peel. Discard the bits that have dark spots or green areas.
– In a very large pot (this is important, get the largest non-aluminium pot available), add the juice, water, peel and the muslin bag with the seeds and pulp. I used a large stainless steel vessel. Ensure that the muslin bag is very securely tied, otherwise you will end up with bits of seeds and pulp in your marmalade.
– Boil this mixture on a high flame for about 30 minutes or till the peels are cooked.
– Then remove the muslin cloth bag from the fruit mixture and add in the sugar and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and constantly keep stirring with a wooden spoon so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom.
– Keep some plates in the freezer to chill.
– Once the marmalade starts thickening, you will need to keep testing it for its done point- the way we did for the apple jam. To test the marmalade, drop a bit of it on a cold cold plate, let it cool. If it is runny, then you need to cook it some more. If it sets and crinkles up a bit when you nudge it a bit with your finger, its done.
– If you intend to store it for a long time, then let it cool for a wee bit and then pour it out in sterilized hard glass bottles. Close the lid while hot to create a vacuum seal. If you and your family is like ours, then it wont last too long anyway, so you need not bother much. 🙂
– Bring out the toast and enjoy the orange-y goodness.

Happy healthy eating!

Warning: This is a long and tiring recipe, albeit with fruitful (pun intended) results. Don’t be like me, if you have a demanding toddler, then don’t attempt this unless there is someone to look after your baby for a good three hours and ensure that you don’t have to enter the kitchen to cook anything after this for atleast a couple of hours. I am not trying to scare you off, but it may seem easy but even juicing oranges thoroughly takes quite a bit of time. 🙂