Seville orange should appear on the market in Australia from early July through to September.

Most recently made in September 2024. It took a very long time to reach setting point!

Ingredients

• 2 lb of oranges (1 kg)
• 5 lb of sugar (2.5 kg)
• 5 (Imperial) pints of water. (One Imperial pint = 20 fl. ozs). (3 L)

Equipment

For the soaking stage, use a plastic container - not metal or even earthenware.

A boilable bag e.g. nylon

For the actual boiling, a metal pan is fine.

Wooden spoon for stirring

Method

• Wash the fruit well, discarding any damaged parts.
• Halve the fruits, squeeze them, and put the juice into the bucket. The pips etc. that got retained in the gate of the squeezer, you put into the nylon bag. Use the bowl of a spoon to scrape the remaining membranes out of the peels, and add those to the nylon bag too, leaving just the peels to be dealt with in the next step.

• shred about a third of the peels with a sharp knife, and mince the rest. Depending on how you like your marmalade, you could shred then all, or put them through a slicer, or mince them all.

• Put the shredded/minced peels into the bucket along with the juice; tie up the nylon bag and put that in also.
• Add about half of the measured amount of cold water, or more if the bucket is big enough.
• Cover the bucket and leave it in a cool place at least overnight, or even for 24 hours. This soaking is an essential part of the recipe: the results won't be nearly as good if you try to omit it.

• After the soaking, put the contents of the bucket, including the nylon bag of pips, into the jam pan, and add the remainder of the measured amount of water.
• Bring carefully to the boil, and simmer gently for as long as is required to get the shredded peels tender. This is likely to take an hour or more of gentle simmering: a sample of peel should feel quite tender if rubbed between thumb and finger, and if sugar is added too soon, the peel can become leathery.

• When the peels are properly tender, remove the bag of pips (allowing any liquid in the bag to drain back into the jam kettle: it contains pectin that helps the jam to set well)

• Add the sugar into the jam kettle and bring back to the boil, stirring to make sure the sugar does not "catch" on the pan.

• When the sugar is fully dissolved, bring the pan to a full rolling boil and keep it boiling (relaxing the heat only if the marmalade threatens to froth over).

• If a white scum forms on the surface, skim it off and discard it; a little translucent foam can be ignored. Half an hour or more of brisk boiling may be required before cooled samples start to form a distinct "skin" on the test plate within a couple of minutes.

• The marmalade is "done" and should be taken off the heat.

• Fill jars while the jam is still hot, and microwave bottle.

Alternative

Apparently what was made in 2021:

• 750g Seville

• 3 lemons

• 1.5 L Water

• 1 kg Sugar