Seville oranges

Jan 24, 2010 102 Replies

I use Delia Smith's recipe - even easier because it can be done all on the same day, works every time perfectly.

Here it is in case you want to consider it for next year.

DELIA SMITH'S SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE

Makes about 6lbs.

2 lb of Seville oranges 4 pts.(2.25 Litres) water l lemon 4 lbs.(1.8 kg) white granulated sugar

Six 1lb (450g) jam jars

9 inch square cheesecloth 3 or 4 saucers

Measure water into large, heavy saucepan. Cut the oranges and lemon in half and squeeze the juice out of them. Add the juice to the water and put any bits of pith, flesh and pip in the cheesecloth square which is laid over a bowl. Now cut the oranges and lemon into quarters with a sharp knife and then cut the quarters into thinnish shreds. Add to the pan. As you cut, any spare pips and bits of pith go into the cheesecloth. (The pips and pith contain a lot of pectin and set the marmalade without having to add pectin, so it is necessary to do this)

Tie the cheesecloth up to form a little bag and leave six inches or so of the string to tie to the side of your pan (don't have to but it makes it easier to remove later) Bring the liquid up to the simmering point and simmer for a couple of hours until the peel is soft. Test a piece by squeezing betweem finger and thumb. At this point put your saucers in the freezer.

Remove the bag of pips and leave it to cool. Pour the sugar into the pan and stir it now and then over a low heat until all the crystals have melted. (check this carefully, its important.) Now increase the heat to high, and squeeze the bag of pips over the pan to extract all the sticky, jelly like substance that contains the pectin. As you squeeze you will see it ooze out. You can also do this by placing the bag between two saucers and squeezing.

As soon as the mixture reaches a really fast boil, start timing. After fifteen minutes spoon a little of the marmalade onto one of the cold saucers from the freezer and recool in the freezer a moment or so. You can tell - when it has cooled - if you have a "set" by pushing the mixture with your finger: if it has a really crinkly skin, it is set. If not, continue to boil and test again at about ten minutes intervals until it does set.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow to settle for about 20 minutes. This makes sure that the pieces of rind are evenly distributed throughout the jar when cold. Pot and cover. Best to leave a month or so before using.

I'm sorry, Gillian, no way did I intend to come across as interfering, I just know what a dreadful time I had at first trying to get everything under control. Neither of dh's cardiologists was any use whatsoever, they were strictly knife and pill men. I read everything I could lay my hands on, but was never really confident. After he was diagnosed with diabetes - brought on, apparently, by one of the meds prescribed earlier by the first cardio - did I get to the real info. Even then, it was only because the endo had a sideline as head of the Diabetes Center of the local hospital that we got a referral to the Registered Nutritionist. It still took quite a bit of study to get to where we are now, it was one of those situations where I'm glad I did it and even gladder I don't have to do it again.

My apologies, didn't mean to push.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Sounds good.

I just finished making my marmalade. It made six-10 ounce jars and one-8 ounce jar for a cost of less than $10. Even without putting the pips in a cheesecloth (which one of my recipes does call for), it jelled beautifully. I had enough extra to into a ramekin which I'll use up in the next couple of days. It is lovely and tangy - just right and not too sweet. The DH still has two jars from the batch I made in November (from MaMade brand canned sevilles), so the next batch can sit for a bit before we use it.

I made the marmalade instead of being at church. I left home to drive the 15 minutes to church in dry, overcast weather. By the time I got five minutes from the church, there was at least 6 inches of white fluffy snow on the road, and it was coming down hard. One of the church members came out of a sideroad ahead of me and I followed in her tracks all the way there.

After some discussion with the other choir members, and the decision not to sing the anthem,(since several members hadn't ventured out) I decided it might be wise to turn around and come home in case it got even worse. I took the more travelled route home and by the time I was half-way there, I was back into a bit of sun and mostly dry roads.

I checked the weather network a few minutes ago and looked at the radar. Yup - the south end of the county is still being bombarded. Lake effect is a very strange thing.

MargW

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