Seville Orange and Lemon Marmalade with a twist · Sunday January 26, 2025 by colin newell
I’ll admit it — with an English and Irish family heritage, I am a bit of a marmalade junkie. I’ve been enjoying it since I was a kid – and thankfully have had access to some locally made farm marmalade – albeit with imported Seville oranges.
For some reason or another, I had forgotten about the last batch that I made (a whopping 4 or 5 years ago…) and it was a combo of Seville Orange, Meyer Lemon and Quince. It was epic. Just the right consistency with just the right amount of peel or rind.
About a year ago I had discovered that there was 3 or 4 bottles kicking around. And knowing how diligent I am when preserving (bottling/canning) it, I cracked open a jar one Saturday morning to enjoy with hot, black coffee. What a treat! I was so taken by how delicious this was, that I gave away some of the remaining bottles. That was a smart move as before too long, I was completely out of this previously preserved confiture. Another Saturday morning rolls around and I head for the cellar to see what might be hiding behind forgotten or feared bottles of canned salmon, mystery chutneys and unmarked bottles of what could possibly be distilled dark matter.
Bingo. A bottle of marmalade from one of my wife’s girlfriends “Angie” — while not the Angie from the Rolling Stones song, this Angie whips up a wicked Marm. So thrilled by it I was that I reported it to her — and she said, “That batch is from 6 years ago – why did your wait so long?!” How can I explain… “Hidden behind bottled toxic waste…” Anyway, I was kicked into action!
Anyway. The recipe for my latest concoction!
12 to 14 Seville Oranges (in season from January through February.)
2 to 4 Lemons of any ilk, stripe or varietal.
Have piles of white sugar handy (enough to light up the eyes of your family dentist…)
Juice the Oranges and Lemons with one of the manual juicers shown at right and/or left.
Put aside the spent/juiced rinds of the lemon and orange in a pot.
Put the pulp and seeds into a small pot for a special treatment afterward.
When you have all the juice set aside (in a measuring pot, carafe or what-have-you) put it in the fridge covered.
Take all of the seeds and pulp that you have and put them into a sauce pan with enough water to cover the mixture.
Bring the mix to a very light boil and then reduce to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. This seed/pulp mix gets this treatment to generate lots of extra pectin (which is key for setting the marmalade. )
Run the pulp/seed/water mixture (which should be in almost sauce form) through a very fine strainer or cheese cloth. The liquid from this exercise goes into your pot/carafe/jug of juice. The seed/pulp remnants go into the compost!
Take your lemon and orange rinds and remove as much pulp as you can that might be left over. Ideally, you want the skins or rind only.
For robust or rustic marmalade, you can use ALL of the rind/skin of all of the fruit but I would advise against that if you are making this marmalade for the first time. Use 1/2 to 3/4 of the skins that you have available.
I tend to cut up the skin/rind into strips that are no more than 1/2” long and as thin as you might think worthy or appetizing. I use a very sharp knife for this — so be very careful! This is where the work gets super risky. Process as much rind as you think worthy of going into your marmalade. I used the rind of every piece of fruit and it the result is: One very thick and rustic marmalade! You have been warned. OK. You have your sliced rind/skin at the ready.
Put all your juice/extract mixture into a suitable pot or dutch oven. Slowly heat while adding 1/2 cup sugar per orange and an additional cup for the lemons. Add your sliced/diced rind. You should have gotten 4 to 6 cups of juice from your lemon/orange juicing combo. If you seem short of fresh juice, you can add 1/4 cup or 200ml (give or take) of bottled organic juice of almost any kind. I used Pomegranate. It’s not too flavour forward but it adds a bit of colour.
Safety note – from this point forward, we are dealing with increasingly hot material. The desire is to bring the liquid/rind mixture to a minimum of 222 to 225 degrees (F) or 104.5 © – at this temperature, these materials if spilled on a human or other living thing can maim or kill. Be very careful.
Common sense here folks: If you have small children, pets or inexperienced kitchen people, keep this in mind – this is a high-hazard activity.
Items required at this point include an accurate analog or digital thermometer — ideally a purpose built candy thermometer.
Additionally, you want the marmalade mixture to pass something called a wrinkle test.
To perform the wrinkle test, add 1/4 teaspoon of the “liquor” or “syrup” in the mix (after it passes 222 degrees) to a plate that has been in the deep freezer for a minimum of a 1/2 hour. Put the plate back in the freezer for 5 minutes or more. Remove the plate and run your finger into the small pool of liquor. If it wrinkles in front of your finger, it has reached the critical set point. If it hasn’t, keep boiling!
When your mix is at that magical “set” point, you want to bottle it. I use glass jars with lids and rings. The discussion of this technique is beyond the scope of this blog — but I could create another blog entry. The two photos above illustrates part of the process. Some other “makers” sometimes pour paraffin wax over the top of the jam/jelly/marmalade before putting on a lid. I use the boiling water immersion method because it is time honoured, safe and guarantees a long shelf life.
Once you get the hang of “basic” Orange marmalade, it opens up a galaxy of infinite variety in terms of additional ingredients, juices, spices, fruit peel and on and on and on – if anyone reading this knows something about adding liquor to marmalade batches, please chime in – I like the idea of the flavour of a single malt whiskey — but I have not idea as to when to add it or how much. Thank you!Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident and long time writer on the subject of coffee and food culture. He can often be found taking up space in a local cafe sipping the best brew the World has to offer.
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