Seville oranges marmalade.

- about my father, seville oranges and making marmalade – rustica RETRO:
That said, as Nigel Slater wrote in the preface to his marmalade recipe for the Guardian, there must be hundreds of recipes out there, but it is the method that changes, not the ingredients.
This recipe is from Daphne Chanez at the Casa del Cibo.
Seville Orange Marmalade
about 20 bitter oranges
1 kg fine cane sugar (exact sugar quantity to be measured during preparation)
1 stick of vanilla

The whole process takes about 3 hours, less if you have another pair of hands or if you are not prone to distraction.
Sharp knives are essential.
- Wash the oranges well.
If they are urban fruit this means giving them a good scrub and possibly throwing in a teaspoon or two of bicarb.
Water will be like kids’ bath water.

- Peel the oranges making sure not to grab too much of the white with each peel.
Finely slice the peel – or cut it more roughly if you like a chunkier look.
3. Place the slices peel in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil.
Lower the flame and cook for about 30 mins.
Drain liquid and set peel aside.

- For the next stage – which is by far the most painstaking, a chopping board with a good groove to collect the juice is required.
Cut the white part from the whole oranges as if you were preparing a fruit salad.
Toss the skins.
Cut the oranges in half and remove the pips, placing them in a small saucepan along with the juice as it is collected.
The remaining flesh, which will be a bit worse for wear after having removed the pips, needs to be cut with a sharp knife into roughly 2cm cubes.
Remove any nasty tough pithy pits and collect flesh in a large bowl.

- Once you have all the flesh cut you can add the boiled rind strips to the bowl.
Measure the contents of the bowl, and this will give you a guide for the quantity of sugar.
This recipe calls for 50% fruit (flesh and peel), 50% sugar, so if you have 1kg of fruit mix you will need 1kg of sugar.

- Place the saucepan of pips and juice on a medium flame and bring to the boil.
Lower flame and cook for another 10 mins.
Cooking the pips and the juice allows the pectin – which is the all important setting agent for jams and jellies – to develop.
After cooking you will have a thick browny orange syrupy liquid which needs to be pushed through a fine sieve or hung and then squeezed through muslin.
Some marmalade recipes tell you to tie the pips in a muslin bag and let them cook with the mixture.
I liked Daphne’s method because if you have a great amount of pectin you can conserve or freeze some for future jam making.
Set drained syrup aside.

- Over a moderately high flame place the rind and flesh mixture in a good preserving saucepan and cook for 5 minutes, then lower the flame and cook for a further 20 mins.
Make sure the mixture doesn’t catch.

- Add the sugar, half a vanilla pod with a slip down the side and the pectin syrup and cook for a further 20 minutes over a low flame.
Stir regularly and make sure the mixture doesn’t catch.
The mixture should thicken but still have a runniness to it.
The color should be a beautiful translucent orange.
If the mixture seems to runny keep cooking for another 5 – 10 minutes but stand by – I have first hand experience that jam and marmalade can overcook or burn easily in the final stages.

- My mother’s setting test (she had to make it in here somewhere) is letting the marmalade drop from a wooden spoon onto a small plate to see how it has jelled.
Once happy with the consistency use a funnel and ladle the marmalade into sterilized jars with new lids.
Close accurately and leave them upside down until they have cooled completely.
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