By Seren Charrington Hollins 
With the passing of Christmas and the New Year celebrations out of the way there comes a joyous cry from marmalade makers across the land as the Seville orange season is upon us.
Suddenly my house is filled with the smell of melting sugar and bittersweet oranges and I am in marmalade heaven. I can’t decide whether I enjoy the eating or making of marmalade the best, but I know that I am a self-confessed marmalade addict.
Every time I make marmalade it is a whole new learning experience, as whilst the standard recipe for an everyday pot of marmalade is twice the weight of sugar to fruit and if you boil it for long enough, with the correct ratio of water, you will end up with little pots of marmalade success; I like to experiment and try new recipes and add innovative twists to my existing formulas. I love the process developing new marmalade recipes and the process of experimenting in the kitchen, in a way it is cooking escapism and for me a bit of an indulgence. On a cold and wintry day I just love locking myself in the kitchen and allowing myself the time to try out new taste combinations, armed with my trusty notepad, I always record my recipes and the outcomes and undoubtedly marmalade making is a seasonal tradition in my household.
Not only does it taste good, but marmalade also has an interesting history and gives us some wonderful tales to contemplate; one of my favourites is that marmalade is a Scottish invention that can be attributed to Janet Keiller, a Dundee grocer’s wife. The tale goes that marmalade was born in the port of Dundee in the late 18th century when James Keiller discovered a cargo of oranges being sold cheaply. Thinking he could sell it for profit in his shop, he bought the whole cargo, only to discover the oranges were bitter and unpalatable. His wife Janet was a resourceful woman who took the ‘problem’ oranges and made them into an orange “jam” that was named Marmalade after Marmelos, the Portuguese word for a quince paste similar in texture to the orange spread. A variation on this story is the fruit being carried up from the beach by Janet’s son, who was sent back to get more oranges with his mother urging ‘Mair, ma lad!’ giving the orange jam its name. Whilst these stories have been proven untrue they do add to the charm and mystery of this citrus preserve.
Whilst I am now a self-proclaimed Marmalade Mistress that would quite happily make and eat the preserve all day long, I must confess that as a child I wasn’t at all keen on the thick cut oxford marmalade my parents used to slather on their toast at breakfast and the only marmalade I liked was fine shred, lime marmalade. Even today lime is one of my favourite marmalades, but it is also the one that has presented me with the greatest of challenges and indeed my early attempts at this preserve saw the lime peel toughening to the texture of toenails and the colour becoming a rich coppery colour rather than bright and jewel like. The following recipe requires a bit of patience, but is the best one I have made to date, however, there are always improvements to be made in the alchemy of marmalade making so it may be superseded come next year.
Lovely Lime Marmalade
limes 8
lemons 2
water
sugar 1.5kg
Cut the limes in half and squeeze all the juice from them, then cover the skins with cold water and leave them in a cool place overnight. Do the same with the lemons. This will help them to soften, making cutting easier. Store the lemon and lime juice in the fridge. Remove the lemon and lime skins from the water and using a spoon scrape out as much of the pulp, pith and pips as possible, placing it all on a piece of muslin. When doing this task I often abandon the spoon and resort to fingers! Tie the muslin up into a little bag shape, securing it with string.
Now with a sharp knife, finely shred the skins. Try to get the peel chopped as evenly as possible.
Measure the reserved citrus juice and make it up to two litres with water.
Place the shredded lime and lemon skins into a large preserving pan with the water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down so that the mixture simmers for about an hour, after an hour the peel will be soft and translucent. During this process check the pan from time to time, to ensure that it is not boiling too rapidly, you need a gentle simmer if you want to avoid tough peel in the finished marmalade.
Once the peel is soft and translucent, remove the muslin bag from the pan and set it aside to cool.
Add the sugar to the citrus mixture. Squeeze the cooled bag of pith and pips into the preserving pan and then bring the mixture to the boil again and leave it on a gentle boil for 40- 45 minutes and then test for a set.
Once you have achieved your set, you can put it into sterilised jars and seal. I must warn you this marmalade is rather moreish and it won’t last for long.
Despite having fuelled breakfast tables for centuries , in recent years Marmalade has been reported as being a preserve that is in decline with the pithy spread losing out to the sweet charms of fruity French style conserves, American peanut butter, marmite and even chocolate spread. Marmalade is a British institution and the duffel-coated Peruvian known as Paddington Bear would never be seen munching a hazelnut spread sandwich, indeed only marmalade would do. I was relieved to learn that in Britain’s switch from eating marmalade to marmite (which must spell a decline in moral fibre) that marmalade making is on the up. Indeed The World’s Original Marmalade Awards held at Dalemain Mansion in Cumbria started in 2005 with just fifty jars of marmalade entered and has grown from strength to strength every year thereafter and last year saw over 2,000 plus jars of marmalade entered from across the globe. I am busy preparing my entries for the artisan awards, if you fancy getting involved there is still time to get your marmalade sent for judging and you can find out how at www.dalemainmarmaladeawards.co.uk
Oxford Marmalade (taken from The Pleasure of Preserving)
This marmalade is slightly darker in colour because of the treacle and brown sugar but great to make when Seville oranges are in season. Stock up your cupboards with this delicious, traditional marmalade
Ingredients:
6 small Seville oranges, well washed
3 lemons, well washed
2.5 litres water
450g granulated sugar
320g brown sugar
60g black treacle
Method:
Cut the oranges and lemons in half, squeeze the juice and strain it into a stainless-steel or enamel preserving pan. Using your fingers, remove all the flesh and pips from the squeezed fruit and tie the pips securely in a muslin square with the halves of lemon peel. Cut the orange peel pieces in half, then crossways into strips about 5 mm thick. Add the strips and the muslin bag to the pan pour in the water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 hours, or until the peel is very soft and the liquid has been reduced by half. Remove the muslin bag from the pan, put it in a bowl and leave until cool enough to handle. Squeeze the bag to remove as much juice as possible, and then pour the juice back into the pan. Discard the bag. Add the sugars and treacle to the pan and stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil for 15–20 minutes. Remove from the heat and test if setting point has been reached. When the marmalade has set, skim any scum from the surface. Leave the marmalade to stand for 20 minutes to allow the peel to settle. Stir to disperse the peel evenly, then pour into clean, warm, dry jars and cover the jars with waxed paper discs and cellophane covers. When cold, label and store in a cool, dark, airy cupboard.
Now Seville oranges are in season you know what to do, if you’d like more tips or recipes visit my blog http://marmalademistress.com
Handy Tips on Marmalade Making:
- Make sure you have a large enough pan to hold all the liquid and peel with plenty of extra space.
- When peeling the skins, keep the pieces as large as possible to make chopping easier
- Don’t over-boil the marmalade once set or the marmalade will be too solid. You are looking for a bouncy and wobbly texture.
- If you are not confident peeling the skin from the whole fruit with a knife, cut the fruit into quarters,
- Make sure that your rind is soft before adding the sugar, for once the sugar is added the rind will not soften any further.
Top Tip
When testing for a setting point one of the traditional tools for the job is a chilled saucer or two, but I like to pop some soup spoons in the freezer for this job. Dipping an ice-cold spoon into the marmalade is a great way of determining whether the long awaited set has been reached.
