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Orange Marmalade
Squeeze out all the juice from the required number of Seville oranges and strain it, pour over the pulp of the oranges as much water as will cover it, and let it steep for an hour. Afterwards strain the liquor off from the oranges and mix it with the juice. For each quart of juice allow three pounds of loaf sugar, boil it to the bubble, mix in the orange juice and boil it for about fifteen minutes, keeping it well skimmed. Turn the marmalade into pots, and when cold, cover and tie them down.
This is a marmalade in the older, looser sense: a bitter-orange jelly with no shredded peel in it at all. Everything depends on getting the pectin out of the pulp and hitting a proper set.
- Seville orangesThe true bitter or sour orange, in season roughly January through February and sold at some greengrocers and Latin markets. Sweet oranges will not work as a substitute here; they are low in acid and pectin and the result will be a cloying syrup that never sets.
- "Pulp" means the whole spent fruitAfter juicing, the membranes, pith and seeds are what carry the pectin. Chop the squeezed halves, cover with water, steep the hour as directed, and strain the liquor through muslin.
- Loaf sugarCone or lump sugar, refined and reliably clean-burning, which is why it was specified for clear preserves. Ordinary granulated white sugar is its equivalent. Three pounds to a quart of liquid is about 6 3/4 cups sugar to 4 cups juice.
- "Boil it to the bubble"An imprecise older direction: the sugar is brought to a boiling syrup, which implies a little water is added, before the juice goes in. The recipe gives no temperature, and what stage of syrup was intended is not certain.
- Fifteen minutes is a guide, not a ruleJudge by temperature or plate test rather than the clock: 220F at sea level, or a spoonful that wrinkles on a chilled saucer. Bitter orange sets readily, and overboiled marmalade turns dark and tastes of caramel.
- SkimmingSkim the foam continuously and do not stir hard once the sugar is in. Trapped air and scum are the main causes of a cloudy jelly.
- Sealing"Cover and tie them down" means a paper or bladder cover secured with string, sometimes over a disc of brandied paper. For shelf storage today, fill sterilised jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, or keep the finished marmalade in the refrigerator.
- YieldA quart of juice with three pounds of sugar gives roughly five to six half-pint jars, depending on how far you boil it down.
The word marmalade comes through Portuguese marmelada, a stiff paste of quince (marmelo), and only gradually attached itself to citrus in English use; by the nineteenth century a Scottish taste for chunky, peel-filled Seville orange preserve had largely captured the name, with the Keiller firm of Dundee traditionally credited for its commercial spread. The version here belongs to the older, smoother line of the family: a strained jelly of bitter orange juice, with the peel discarded rather than shredded.