Orange Jelly
INGREDIENTS for a quart mould.--1 pint of water, 1½ to 2 oz. of isinglass or gelatine, lb. of loaf sugar, 1 Seville orange, 1 lemon, about 9 China oranges. AVERAGE COST, with gelatine, 1s. 8d.
Put the water into a saucepan, with the isinglass or gelatine, sugar and the rind of 1 orange and the same of lemon and stir these over the fire until the isinglass or gelatine is dissolved and remove the scum; then add to this the juice of the Seville orange, the juice of the lemon and sufficient juice of China oranges to make in all 1 pint: from 8 to 10 oranges will yield the desired quantity. Stir all together over the fire until it is just on the point of boiling: skim well; then strain the jelly through a very fine sieve or jelly-bag, 1. per lb.
Let there be an equal weight of loaf sugar and Seville oranges and allow the above proportion of water to every dozen oranges. Peel them carefully, remove a little of the white pith and boil the rinds in water 2 hours, changing the water three times to take off a little of the bitter taste. Break the pulp into small pieces, take out all the pips and cut the boiled rind into chips. Make a syrup with the sugar and water; boil this well, skim it, and, when clear, put in the pulp and chips. Boil all together from 20 minutes to 1/2 hour; pour it into pots, and, when cold, cover down with bladders, or tissue-paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg. The juice and grated rind of 2 lemons to every dozen of oranges, added with the pulp and chips to the syrup, are a very great improvement to this marmalade.
TIME.--2 hours to boil the orange-rinds; 10 minutes to boil the syrup; 20 minutes to hour to boil the marmalade.
SEASONABLE. This should be made in March or April, as Seville oranges are then in perfection.
Note. The best marmalade is made by Keiller, and many are of opinion that when it can be bought so cheaply and good it is scarcely worth making at home.
ORANGE MARMALADE.
Orange Marmalade. II. - INGREDIENTS. Equal weight of Seville oranges and sugar; to every lb. of sugar allow 1/2 pint of water. AVERAGE COST, 6d. per lb. pot.
Weigh the sugar and oranges, score the skin across and take it off in quarters.
Boil these quarters in a muslin bag in water until they are quite soft and they can be pierced easily with the head of a pin; then cut them into chips about 1 inch long and as thin as possible. Should there be a great deal of white stringy pulp, remove it before cutting the rind into chips. Split open the oranges, scrape out the best part of the pulp, with the juice, rejecting the white pith and pips. Make a syrup with the sugar and water; boil it until clear; then put in the chips, pulp and juice and boil the marmalade from 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, removing all the scum as it rises. In boiling the syrup, clear it carefully from scum before the oranges are added to it.
TIME.-2 hours to boil the rinds, 10 minutes the syrup, 20 minutes to 1/2 hour the marmalade.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in March or April, when Seville oranges are in perfection.
Orange Marmalade, An Easy Way of Making. INGREDIENTS. - To every lb. of pulp allow 1½ lb. of loaf sugar.
AVERAGE COST, 5d. to 6d. per lb.
Choose some fine Seville oranges or put equal quantities of sweet and bitter oranges; put them whole into a stewpan with sufficient water to cover them and stew them until they become perfectly tender, changing the water 2 or 3 times; drain them, take off the rind, remove the pips from the pulp, weigh it and to every Ib. allow 1 of loaf sugar and 1/4 pint of the water the oranges were last boiled in.
Boil the sugar and water together for 10 minutes; put in the pulp, boil for another 10 minutes; then add the peel cut into strips and boil the marmalade for another 10 minutes, which completes the process.
Pour it into jars; let it cool; then cover down with bladders, or tissue-paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg.
TIME.-2 hours to boil the oranges; altogether 1/2 hour to boil the marmalade.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in March or April.
Orange Marmalade made with Honey. INGREDIENTS.-To 1 quart of the juice and pulp of Seville oranges allow 1 ORANGE PUDDING. lb. of the rind, 2 lbs. of honey. AVERAGE COST, 7d. or 8d. per lb. pot.
Peel the oranges and boil the rind in water until tender and cut it into strips.
Take away the pips from the juice and pulp and put it with the honey and chips into a preserving-pan: boil all together for about hour, or until the marmalade is of the proper consistency; put it into pots, and, when cold, cover down with bladders.
TIME.-2 hours to boil the rind, 1/2 hour the marmalade.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in March or April.
Orange Marmalade, Pounded. -INGREDIENTS.-Weight and 1/2 in sugar to every lb. of oranges.
Cut some clear Seville oranges in 4 pieces, put all the juice and pulp into a basin and take out the seeds and skins; boil the rinds in hard water till tender, changing the water 2 or 3 times while boiling; drain them well and pound them in a mortar: then put them into a preservingpan with the juice and pulp and their weight and 1/24 of sugar; boil rather more than 1/2 an hour.
TIME. About 2 hours to boil the rinds, an hour the marmalade.
What is printed here is really two things: the tail of an orange jelly set with isinglass, and a run of Seville orange marmalades. The marmalade methods are complete and workable; the jelly stops at the straining stage.
- The jelly is incompleteThe jelly instructions break off after straining through the jelly-bag, with no direction for filling or turning out the mould. Expect to pour the strained liquid into a wetted quart mould and chill several hours until firm, then dip the mould briefly in hot water to release it.
- Quart mouldAn imperial quart is 40 fl oz, so about 5 US cups. The jelly's total liquid is 1 pint of water plus 1 pint of citrus juice, which is 2 imperial pints, near enough to fill the mould.
- Isinglass and gelatine are not interchangeable by weightIsinglass (dried sturgeon swim bladder) has largely vanished from kitchens, and the gelatine of Beeton's day varied in strength from batch to batch. 1 1/2 to 2 oz for 2 pints will set very stiffly indeed by current taste. Follow the strength stated on the packet for a moulded jelly rather than the ounce figures here.
- China oranges are ordinary sweet oranges"China orange" was the standard nineteenth-century term for the sweet eating orange, as against the bitter Seville. The recipe reckons 8 to 10 will yield the pint; modern fruit varies in size and juiciness, so measure to a pint rather than counting fruit.
- Seville orangesThese are the bitter marmalade oranges, in the shops for a few weeks from January into March. They give these marmalades their character; the third version here does allow equal quantities of sweet and bitter, but sweet oranges alone make a flat, cloying preserve. Frozen Sevilles work well if you missed the season.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was refined white cane sugar broken from a cone. Plain granulated is the equivalent. Preserving sugar dissolves more cleanly if you have it; no added pectin is needed, since Seville peel and pips supply plenty.
- Boiling the rindsTwo hours with two or three changes of water is not excessive for whole Seville peel; it removes the harshest bitterness and, more importantly, softens the pith so the peel will not toughen once sugar goes in. Test with a pin as the second version says. Peel that is still firm at this stage will stay firm forever.
- The marmalade boilTwenty minutes to half an hour is a guide, not a rule. Work to a setting point instead: 105C/221F on a sugar thermometer, or a spoonful wrinkling on a cold saucer. Skim as directed, and stir near the end, when sugar catches easily.
- SealingBladders and egg-washed tissue-paper are obsolete. Pot into hot sterilised jars and seal at once with lids, or use waxed discs under cellophane. Marmalade's sugar and acid make it keep well, but a modern airtight seal prevents surface mould.
- A missing figureThe sugar quantity in the jelly ingredients has lost its fraction, and the "pounded" version gives its sugar as a weight plus a fraction that has not survived legibly. For the pounded marmalade, equal weights of sugar and fruit is the safe reading.
Marmalade takes its name from the Portuguese marmelada, a stiff quince paste, and only in Britain did the word settle on a citrus preserve cut with strips of peel. The bitter Seville orange, useless for eating raw, was the fruit that made it, and its short winter season is why every version here is marked "March or April". The note recommending Keiller is a small piece of commercial history in itself: the Dundee firm of James Keiller & Son was among the first to sell marmalade as a factory-made article rather than a kitchen one, and by the later nineteenth century it had become cheap enough that even a book devoted to home cookery conceded the point. The direction to cover the pots with bladders ied wet and shrinking tight as it dried belongs to a period before the screw-top jar.