Ian's Marmalade

Recipes

Mar 13

Growing up, there was always a jar of marmalade in the fridge. You couldn’t get me to touch it, but my dad would rave about it all day long. It sounded good and looked so pretty, but I couldn’t get past the bitter taste. My taste buds have progressed a bit since then, and I enjoy it significantly more. Still, marmalade is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Comment below if you are or aren’t a fan of marmalade!

Ian has been coming to Hofstede’s for many years to do his shopping, and has often generously shared a jar of his homemade marmalade with us. This year he offered to come and make it with us, so we picked out some Seville oranges, and got to work! The process from start to finish took about two hours, but most of that is stove time. Considering we ended up with at least a year’s supply of marmalade, there isn’t a lot of time or ingredient cost involved. We highly recommend you try this out (you could even halve the recipe). You never know if you’ll prefer a homemade version better! Plus the smell during the cooking process is heavenly.

Follow the directions and photos below to see how we came out with the beautiful jars of finished product.

Serves: 10-11 cups, Prep time: 1 hour, Cook time: 1hr Total time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

2 pounds Seville oranges (about 6)

4 pounds sugar (9 cups)

4 imperial pints water (10 cups)

Juice from 2 lemons

Directions

Cut oranges in half and juice them. Set orange juice aside and add juice from 2 lemons.

Then scrape out the pith from the peel of the oranges. Add the pith along with the seeds to a small pot.

Boil seeds and pith with 3 cups water. This is where a lot of the gel comes from. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Liquid will thicken slightly.

Meanwhile, slice the peel into strips and add to a food processor. Run the processor until the peel is quite fine. See photoe below for reference, but the size is also to your preference. Traditionally the peel would be sliced into very fine strips, but this is another method. Add the peel to a large pot with 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Once liquid has boiled, lower heat and let simmer.

After the seeds and pith liquid has simmered for 15-20 minutes, strain the seeds and pith mixture into the larger pot of peel.

Return the seeds and pith to the same small pot with another 3 cups of water and bring to a boil again. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes. This time, the liquid will stay quite thin, and the pith will break down quite a bit.

After the 15 minutes, strain into the large pot. Discard the pith and seeds.

Bring the large pot to a boil. Stir as needed.

Next, add the sugar, orange and lemon juice. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. The mixture will now need to boil for 20-30 minutes until it gels. This is the trickiest part. Keep an eye on it while it boils so that it doesn’t boil over. You will need to adjust the heat from time to time.

You want to make sure it has thickened enough so that it has a good consistency to set.

How to know if it’s ready:

Using a wooden spoon, lift up a bit of the marmalade on the spoon, let it cool. Then tip the spoon down and see if the liquid collects on the edge of the spoon rather than immediately drips down. The liquid needs to have cooled when you do this. If it is hot, it will still be thin and won’t seem ready even if it is.

You can also spoon some marmalade onto a plate, let it cool slightly, and then push your finger through the marmalade. If it crinkles around your finger then it is ready.

It is important to get this step right. If it hasn’t gelled enough, then it won’t set in the jars. The flavour won’t change, but you may have to empty all the jars back into a pot and reboil it. Ian made that mistake once and he doesn’t recommend it!

Once you are happy with the marmalade consistency, pour it into clean glass jars. Put on the lids, and let them sit until they’ve sealed.

Check the next day, and the marmalade should be thickened and set!

Thank you to Ian for coming and making your marmalade recipe with us!