Tag: marmalade

Counting on … day 27

7th February 2025

One way of reducing food waste is to preserve excess food. At the end of the week if I have vegetables and fruit left over from the week’s vegetable box, I will often make it into sauerkraut. In the summer if there is a glut of fruit in the garden, I will turn into jams and chutneys or bottle it to use in the winter. This past autumn I experimented with slicing and drying apples and now they are a lovely semi sweet snack. When UK peppers and tomatoes are at a peak in the shops, I will buy and bottle or pickle them for the winter when they will add colour and variety to the range of winter vegetables. 

The winter months conversely are a good time to take advantage of seasonal citrus fruits, especially Seville oranges, and use them to make Marmalade.

Eco Tips
https://greentau.org/tag/marmalade/

Counting on extra!

This is the month when Seville oranges are in season, making it the month to make marmalade. 

Making marmalade is not difficult; it is a little time consuming, and it does ideally need a sugar thermometer- but is highly rewarding.

The recipe below is based on one that belonged to my great aunt. She specified 7 Seville oranges but I think in those days the fruits were bigger. So now I measure the ingredients by weight  

Seville Marmalade

1.5lbs of fruit including one sweet orange, one lemon and the balance being Seville oranges

3lbs gratulated sugar and mix in 1 packet of pectin powder (this is best done when both are dry ingredients)

Cut fruit into quarters and boil until skin is soft. If you have a slow cooker this is ideal – just put the fruit and 3 pints of water into the slow cooker, cover with its lid and leave gently simmering for 4 to 6 hours as necessary. 

Allow fruit to cool, slice the fruit thinly discarding all the pips as you find them. 

Put sliced fruit, the liquid and sugar into a large pan, bring to the boil whilst stirring (to prevent the sugar from burning). 

Simmer for a couple of hours, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches 105C – this is where a sugar thermometer is useful. Otherwise you will need to judge the setting point by dripping the mixture onto a cold plate and seeing if it begins to set.

Ladle the marmalade into warmed jars. (You can either wash the jars and dry them in the ovens at 100C to warm and sterilise them or half fill them with water and microwave them till the water boils.)

You will now have about 7 jars of golden, slightly tart, delectable marmalade!