Top tips for making marmalade

Author: Eileen Riddiford | Posted: Wednesday 6th January '10

Marmalade is a more time-consuming project than making jam, but no less satisfying. It’s much more labour intensive than the summer fruit jams. You need Seville oranges which only have a limited season in the UK shops – it’s smash and grab in my local Waitrose when someone spots that they’ve arrived!

Make friends with your greengrocer

If you’re friends with a good local greengrocer (if such a person still exists in your neck of the woods) or if you have a regular fruit and veg stall that you frequent at a street market, let them know you make marmalade and ask them to keep you posted when the Sevilles are in.

Do it in phases and freeze the oranges if short of time

You can do all the donkey work of shredding and squeezing etc and put all this into a Tupperware in the freezer until you are ready to make your marmalade.

I have some friends who just buy the fruit and sling the oranges whole into their freezer until they’re ready. This has the advantage of softening the peel too which one has to do normally by pre-boiling the shred.

You need to keep the pith for the pectin!

I followed Delia’s advice on marmalade as my first attempt was no good – it just wouldn’t set. She has some very good tips and thereafter I was in the groove. I’d been too particular about removing the pith and this prevented enough pectin being present to make the set. You can also tie some pith and seeds in a muslin bag to boil up with your fruit, and then discard afterwards.

Spice it up with some Scotch!

I usually add some Glenfiddich to my marmalade – after it’s reached setting point slurp in 100 ml of good Scotch. This makes it extra specially delicious and a good Christmas stocking treat.

Save it for a miserable day

The lovely thing about marmalade is that one can usually find a miserable day in winter when the idea of an indoor project to make ten pounds of marmalade is really appealing – stick the radio on and listen to a good play while you’re doing it.

Storage

Marmalade will keep for a year, unopened in a cool dark place. Once you open the jar keep it in the fridge and use within 6 months.

Get your kit

>> Complete Cookery Course: Classic Edition Delia’s marmalade recipe and troubleshooting tips

For all your marmalade and jam-making needs we swear by Lakeland. They have everything you want and at reasonable prices and top quality >> Lakeland preserving equipment

There are 11 comments

Posted by SusanG on January 24, 2010 at 2:11am
in the latest Lakeland catalogue they have a tin of ready prepared Seville oranges to use instead of fresh ones. It's £1.99 for a tin that they claim makes 6lbs of marmalade - or is that cheating?? Has anyone tried it?
Posted by washdayblues on January 24, 2010 at 2:21am
Haven't tried that - but then haven't tried making any jam or marmalade - too scared it won't work. I get Lakeland catalogue too and they have another way to cheat - an electric jam-maker. Now that might just be within my capabilities but at £100 it's bot within my budget so I guess I'll never find out.
Posted by Terry (unregistered) on January 26, 2010 at 2:21pm
My prob is getting marmalade to set at the best consistency, which for me is softish and not too firm. I've tried all methods such as spoon test, pushing on a plate, jam thermometer; but this year all my results have been on the too firm side. Is there any way I can be more reasonably sure of success. Is there a probe, for example which can give a really good indication. I normally us 1.5lbs sevilles, 2.1lbs granulated sugar, 1lemon and a nob of butter - no pectin - . Advice would be very welcome
Posted by kristin (unregistered) on January 26, 2010 at 4:44pm
terry-check out nigel slater's recipe in the guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/25/seville-orange-marmalade-recipe He recommends taking a spoonful every 15 minutes while its boiling to check if its set or not. I'm sure you could make a point at some time not to boil it too long, or also, to possibly not put too much of the pith in to create a slightly more runny jam.
Posted by bell (unregistered) on February 25, 2010 at 8:36pm
i have just made some marmalade but it has set too firm..is there any remedy for this?!!!
Posted by Wendy (unregistered) on February 26, 2010 at 8:55am
My mum used to make marmalade from scratch, until she discovered the tins of ready prepared Seville oranges and then always used that so.......that's what I always use! Asda and Waitrose sell them at about £1.30 a tin. I never use as much sugar as they say but otherwise follow the instructions on the tin! It makes 6lb of marmalade.....I always make a few small jars to keep as 'thank you' pressies. I use the 'saucer test' to test for setting.....and it always works! They say 'add a knob of butter' to remove the 'scum' but I just skim off with a wooden spoon as it comes to the surface. Maybe the pan makes a difference? I use an ancient aluminium pan that belonged to my mum's aunt....we also use it for making pop corn!
Posted by Sunday (unregistered) on February 26, 2010 at 8:56am
Make sure you keep all the pith and pips when you've squeezed the oranges and sliced up the peel. Add in one or two lemons - they're even richer in pectin than the oranges. Put the pith & pips into a muslin bag - or an old cotton/linen tea towel tied up into a bag will do - and leave that to soak with the sliced peel and juice overnight,or at least for a good few hours. Then simmer the whole lot for an hour, with the lid on the pan. Take out the bag of pith & pips and drain it into the pan (placing it on a cake cooling rack over the pan to let it drain works nicely). Leave it to drain for an hour or so and then squeeze out any remaining juice into the pan. This gives you as much pectin as possible to set the marmalade. Another good tip is to include half a pound (or whatever the equivalent in grams is) of jam sugar in with the preserving or granulated sugar you're using. The jam sugar has added pectin... Use a jam thermometer to guide you - they have marks to show you when you've reached the correct temperature, and start testing for a set after about 10 minutes. At some point around the setting temperature you will notice the nature of the boil changing - it gets gloopier and more jammy. Test for a set on a cold plate and also keep dipping in a wooden spoon and holding it over the pan so that the marmalade drips off so that you can see when the drips coagulate.
Posted by mary mayfield (unregistered) on February 26, 2010 at 11:18am
I'm not sure if this will work to rescue rock solid marmalade but might be worth a try. Warm the jar gently to turn the marmalade runny again - I'm assuming it's too solid to spoon out - put in back in the pan with ready boiled fruit and some water, and re- boil to setting point. the amounts are going to be a bit hit and miss but if the marmalade is too solid to eat, there's maybe not a lot to lose. I normally test for setting point by popping a saucer in the freezer, getting it really cold then putting the test spoonful on it and back in the freezer for a couple of minutes - not long enough to freeze but it cools down much quicker and the rest of the pan is lees likely to over-boil.
Posted by Jen S (unregistered) on February 26, 2010 at 12:35pm
Hi - I've made quite a bit of marmelade and I use a very simple technique - no faffing with removing pith and cutting zest...3lb sevilles, 1 sweet orange, 1 lemon. Halve and remove pips into a muslin bag and tie up for use later. Chuck fruit in blender in batches just as it is, with 3 pints of water in total. Leave overnight to soften. Boil for 1.5 hours with pip bag to get the pectin out of the pips so that it sets. Remove pip bag. Add 3lb sugar, boil rapidly for 10min. Do the plate test as described earlier then jar. It's always been the right consistency for me, but maybe if it works out as too set then remove the pip bag part way through boiling? Jen p.s. this is not a sweet marmelade - add more sugar if that's what you want! p.p.s. the tinned oranges seem to take some of the love out of it, but are clearly easier!
Posted by Gill Beddow (unregistered) on March 1, 2010 at 8:25pm
re marmalade being too firm. I think the problem is too much sugar. Try slightly less than you are using now, You do not want it being like gum...trial and error till you get it right.
Posted by Jams, pickles and preserves | Make it and Mend it (unregistered) on June 30, 2010 at 12:59pm
[...] In January/ February follow the Top Tips from guest writer Eil on making marmalade, and there’s loads of additional tips, recipes and pointers from our member community. >> Top Tips on marmalade [...]