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Orange Marmalade (One dozen oranges one-half)
One dozen oranges, one-half dozen lemons, three quarts of cold water, eight pounds of sugar. With a very sharp knife slice the oranges and lemons (skins on) as thin as possible and soak the slices twelve hours in the cold water; then, just as it is, boil the mixture slowly two and one-half hours; then add sugar and boil slowly three-quarters of an hour. It will look thin but will thicken as it
— Miss Cornelia Cairns
cools.
A classic long-soak marmalade: no pectin, no thermometer, and no jar instructions, which is where a modern cook has to fill in the gaps. Note also that the printed line has been garbled by the compositor — the sentence should read "it will look thin but will thicken as it cools," with Miss Cairns's name following.
- The hinge: stop trusting the clock, test the setThe stated times (2½ hours, then ¾ hour after sugar) are a guide for a wide, shallow pan over a modest flame. Judge doneness instead by putting a spoonful on a chilled saucer: when it wrinkles as you push it, or reads 220–222F on a candy thermometer, take it off. Boiled past that it turns dark and candy-like on cooling.
- Why no pectin is neededThe twelve-hour cold soak with skins, pith and seeds included is what extracts the pectin — citrus peel and pith are loaded with it. Do not strain out the seeds before boiling; tie them in a scrap of cheesecloth if you want them retrievable, and squeeze the bag before discarding.
- Slicing"As thin as possible" is the whole texture of the finished preserve. A mandoline or a very sharp thin-bladed knife gives 1–2 mm slices; halve or quarter the rounds so the strips are spoonable. Wash the fruit well, since you are eating the skins.
- The fruit has changedMarmalade oranges of this period were often thicker-skinned and more tart than what is sold now, and British practice leaned on bitter Seville; the recipe's six lemons also supply acid and bite. Modern navels are sweeter and less bitter, so a mix of navel and Seville (or an extra lemon) may bring the flavor closer.
- Pan sizeThree quarts of liquid plus eight pounds of sugar wants a preserving pan of at least 8–10 quarts. Sugar syrup at a rolling boil climbs, and marmalade scorches the instant it catches on a narrow, thin-bottomed pot.
- YieldA very large batch. Eight pounds of sugar plus the fruit gives something on the order of twelve pounds of finished marmalade, or roughly eighteen to twenty half-pint jars. The original assumes you know this.
- Putting it upThe recipe stops at the pan, as period receipts usually do. Ladle into hot sterilized half-pint jars leaving ¼ inch headspace and process 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath, or skip processing and keep the jars refrigerated and eaten within a couple of months. The old practice of sealing with a paraffin disc is no longer recommended.
Marmalade reached American cookbooks by way of Britain, where the Seville-orange version had become a breakfast fixture over the course of the eighteenth century, and where the word itself came from the Portuguese marmelada — a stiff quince paste, quince being marmelo. The whole-fruit, long-soak method here is the standard domestic English technique, requiring nothing but a knife, patience and a lot of sugar, and versions of it are common in American community cookbooks. Recipes credited to a neighbor were the currency of these fundraising books — the attribution was the endorsement.