Marmalade

Mid-February, Stockholm. With supermarkets filled with starting-to-get-soft root vegetables, puckered asparagus from Peru and overpriced, mealy tomatoes, spring’s long-awaited cornucopia can seem very distant. Perhaps that is why my heart always skips a beat when I see that the year’s first shipment of Seville oranges has arrived.

And sure, with a pound of fresh, bitter Sevilles, I could make any number of wonderful Cuban, Mexican or even Caribbean dishes. But, for me, Seville oranges mean primarily one thing: marmalade.

Last year’s batch of marmalade was composed of a mixture of Seville and blood oranges. It was tasty enough but perhaps a bit too sweet and one-sided. This year, I picked up a grapefruit (to enhance the bitterness) and a few lemons (for extra pucker) to go along with my Seville oranges. On a whim, I also threw in a half pod of vanilla.



First off, something I’ve learned the hard way – remove the seeds before boiling! You don’t want to try picking them out later… The oranges (one and a half) were responsible for 99% of the seeds you see in the bowl. Inside, they consisted of small pockets of flesh surrounding seed after seed. The seeds in (and, of course, the sourness of) these oranges makes one realize why Indian “sweet” oranges rapidly took over Europe when they were introduced.



Next, it’s time for a sharp knife and a few minutes of slicing. I sliced the citrus (about half a pound of each) quite thinly and placed the fruit, about a quart of water and the scraped vanilla pod in a pot. I also added the seeds to the pot after wrapping them in cheesecloth. This mixture was covered and boiled for about 30 minutes or until the rinds are soft. After boiling, let the mixture cool and sit overnight.




The next day, remove the vanilla pod and the seeds. Weigh and add about 2.5 pounds of sugar to the mixture and bring to a rolling boil.



The object is to boil this as quickly and intensely as possible so that the some of the water is evaporated without caramelizing too much of the sugar. Try not to let this sugary mess boil over or it will reek havoc on most stovetops… We’re aiming for 105-106 degrees C (or about 222 degrees F) and it took me about 15 minutes.



Getting there…



I won’t go into the details of “canning” here but I’ve boiled a batch of jars and their lids and disinfected everything with Sodium benzoate before putting the hot marmalade into the jars.



I’m actually very happy with this batch! All three citrus harmonize well with each other and the whole concoction has a pleasing Campari-like kick. The grapefruit adds its own bitterness to the oranges’ and the lemons provided some needed sourness. I currently like the fullness in flavor that the vanilla added and am keeping my fingers crossed that I continue to like it… I’ll need to as I am the family’s lone bitter fiend. The kids looked like I’d fed them rat poison after tasting last night’s batch and my wife’s comment was, approximately “That’s really good for what it is…”.

Bridgestone,

Terrific tutorial, and your picture of jarred marmalade is poster worthy.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bridgestone,

Another wonderful post. Many thanks. And, as Gary says, that final photo is really striking and beautiful.

Antonius

Bridgestone, I always enjoy your posts, and appreciate the care you take to be clear about your methods.

I also love marmalades, but lately have been working from a recipe that mystifies me somewhat. I wonder if you have run across any recipes with a step that is suggested in my recipe: soaking the rinds overnight in a salty brine, then rinsing and proceeding with the recipe. Perhaps this is not neccessary. I'm not clear on why the salt is used.

HI,

For the holidays I often make candied citrus peel. One of the steps is soaking in salted water with several changes. The effect seems to take away some of the essential oils that give the astringent taste.

I don't generally like commercial citrus peel, though I like the ones I make. I believe ithe difference is the minimizing of the essential oils from the skin with those extra soaking steps.

Whenever I find the recipe, I will post it here someday.

Regards,

Did you consider using meyer lemons? What type of grapefruit did you use as well? Ruby red? Im curious, because I like to make jams and preserves myself.

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Josephine - I think that the eminent Cathy2 may well have answered your question. The only other guess I have is that the salt soak may be used to further soften the rinds. Hard rinds are the bane of marmalade making. I've gotten around them by slicing thinly and the initial boil (and soak) sans sugar (sugar will actually act to harden the rinds). Perhaps a soak in salt also acts to soften the rinds. This could be even more important if one perfers a thicker cut to their marmalade.

Cilantrochef - I, sadly, cannot find meyer lemons where I live (Stockholm, Sweden). However, I was really looking for an extra kick of sourness when I turned to lemons in the first place so I'm not certain as to if they would have been too much help for me in this case. I am, however, certain that wonderful preserves and/or marmalade could be made with meyer lemons. Please try and let us know! As far as the grapefruit go, they were red and from Florida* even if they were not marketed as "Ruby Red". Perhaps that makes them "Ruby Red" anyway?

*I'm a little ashamed to admit this as I generally try to purchase as locally as possible. However, I'm not even certain as to if there even are any European producers of grapefruit...

Bridgestone wrote:Hard rinds are the bane of marmalade making. I've gotten around them by slicing thinly and the initial boil (and soak) sans sugar (sugar will actually act to harden the rinds).

That explains it. I never would have guessed that sugar hardens the rinds. Interesting.

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

For the holidays I often make candied citrus peel. One of the steps is soaking in salted water with several changes. The effect seems to take away some of the essential oils that give the astringent taste.

I don't generally like commercial citrus peel, though I like the ones I make. I believe ithe difference is the minimizing of the essential oils from the skin with those extra soaking steps.

Whenever I find the recipe, I will post it here someday.

Regards,

Do you always use organic oranges/lemons when you are making candied citrus peel? I was going to make candied clementine peel or candied tangerine peel, but could not find this type of organic produce.

Hi,

I don't deliberately seek out organic citrus for making candied peel. I use whatever looks good.

Regards,