Marmalade – another method

There are many ways to make marmalade, and lots of advice about the perfect version. This is ‘method 1’ in Bulletin 21 from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, printed in 1971. I got the book at a jumble sale in 1981.

I published this tonight, as I promised the recipe to someone who’d tried the marmalade. I can’t remember if she had the Aperol batch though. 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 1.5 kg seville oranges
  • 2 lemons
  • 2.25 litres of water
  • 3 kg sugar
  • Optional extra – 200ml of Aperol – reduce water to 2 litres

METHOD:

  • With a potato peeler, shave strips of peel from the oranges and lemons. Cut the peel very finely, into strips about 1cm long and the thickness of a penny. You don’t need to do all the peel, it depends on how much you really like it. 
  • Put the peel in a pan with some of the water, and simmer for around 2 hours, until the peel is tender. 
  • Cut up the rest of the fruit coarsely and simmer with the remaining water in a closed pan for around 1 1/2 hours. When cooked, strain through a colander to remove the pips. 
  • Add the strained juice (and optional aperol) to the peel, bring to the boil and then add the sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. 
  • Bring the marmalade to a fast boil, until setting point is reached. When you have decided the marmalade is ready, turn off the heat, and skim off any foamy scum. 
  • Let the marmalade cool quite a bit in the pan: this means that the peel distributes evenly in the jar. 
  • Pour into warmed glass jars, and seal. 

One thought on “Marmalade – another method”

  1. A follow-up comment from me. I often vary this recipe, adding ginger, or using fewer lemons, a spoon of treacle or brown sugar. It can be made more bitter by reducing the quantity of sugar. The bitterest I have made, used the same weight of sugar as fruit. More often I use 1kg fruit/1.5kg sugar.

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