HTAG Guildford - Recipe for Orange Marmalade

Front Page >> Features >> Recipe for Orange Marmalade

Recipe for Orange Marmalade

Recipe for De-Lux Victorian Orange Marmalade

This recipe was made available to HTAG members by Elizabeth Douglas. She writes:

My grandmother always used this recipe which came from her mother, Emma Smith, later Mrs Bennett. Emma was born in Marylebone in 1829, the only surviving daughter of Thomas and Frances Mary Smith who had a fruiterer's shop in Welbeck Street. Thomas died in 1838 and the shop was subsequently run by his widow and this recipe - very similar to one given in Eliza Acton's "Modern Cookery" in 1845 - evidently came from the shop.

There are two versions below. The first is as was given by Emma herself. The second is what I did:

Emma's version

The oranges must be sliced very small and thin, but picking out the seeds. To each lb of sliced fruit add 2 pints of cold water. Let this stand 24 hours, and then boil it till the strips are tender. Let this stand till next day then weigh it and to each lb of boiled fruit add 1 lbs loaf-sugar and then boil the whole till syrup jellies and the strips are transparent; this may take from to an hour. 12 Seville oranges, 4 sweet, 2 lemons make about 28 lbs of marmalade. My version

To make about 6.4 kg (14 lbs) of marmalade.

1. Take 7 Seville oranges, 2 sweet ones, 1 lemon. Total weight was 2kg (about 4 lb)
2. Cut the fruit in half, squeeze out and retain the juice separately.
3. Scoop out the membranes with a spoon and keep.
4. Cut the skins into smaller pieces and cut away the remaining pith.
5. Put all the pith, membranes and pips in a muslin bag.
6. Slice up the skins into thin pieces less than 2 cm (1 inch) long.
7. Soak the sliced peel + muslin bag in 5 litres (9 pints) of cold water (ie 2 litres per kg of fruit; 2 pints per lb of fruit) for 24 hours.
8. Boil the peel + muslin bag for at least 1 hour. This softens the peel and extracts pectin from the pips etc.*
9. Add 7 kg of sugar (3 kg per kg of fruit; 1 lb per lb of fruit) and heat the mixture gently until the sugar is dissolved.
10. Boil hard until the setting point is reached. Stir in the saved juice. Test by placing a few drops of marmalade on a saucer chilled in the freezer. After a minute push the blob with a finger and the blob should wrinkle. NB The temperature can go well above the setting temperature as shown on a thermometer but if there is insufficient pectin it will not set.

*I did not do this long enough and the marmalade did not set. I had to add some pectin and even so the marmalade did not set properly. Perhaps an extra lemon might have helped. It tasted very good but the toast had to be held horizontal to stop the marmalade running off.

Stephen Wright
Summer, 2005