Marmalade is universally liked and omnipresent in the kitchen. It contains whole pieces of fruit so it's more often served for breakfast whereas cakes, biscuits and tarts are usually filled with jam, in which the fruit is processed - or garnished with jelly that is made of fruit juice. Today's post is dedicated to my favorite kind: orange marmalade.
Even though oranges don't grow naturally on the British Isles, English orange marmalade is famous. The variety used for marmalade was, and still normally is, the bittersweet Seville orange but there were also recipes that used a combination of sweet and bitter fruit. Orange marmalade is a bit complicated to make but the resulting flavor & taste are certainly worthwhile. Meanwhile, the French cultivated the art of bittersweet orange marmalade (confiture d'oranges) that was less complicated to amek - inspired by the 'Orangerie' Louis XIV planted at Versailles.
This a collection of historic recipes from English, French & American cookbooks that I recently browsed:
#1
"To make Marmalade of Oranges. To make an excellent Marmalade of Oranges, take the Oranges, and with a knife pare off as thinne as is possible the vppermost rinde of the Orange; yet in such Sort, as by no meanes you alter the colonr of the Orange; then steepe them in faire water, changing the water twice a day till you find no bitterness of taste therein; then take them off and first boyle them in faire running water, and when they are soft, remoue them into rosewater, and boyle them therein till they breake; then to euery pound of the pulpe put a pound of re[f]ined sugar, and so hauing masht and stirred them all wel together, straine it through very faire strainers into boxes, and so vse it as you shal see occasion."
#2
"Marmelade d'Oranges de Portugal. Elle se fait en prenant des Oranges de Portugal, que vous coupez par quartiers, sans les tourner ni les zester, & vous en ôtez le jus, & les têtes, où il y a un durillon qui ne se ramollit pas aisément. Vous metez de l'eau sur le feu ; & quand elle veut boüillir, vous y jetez vos chairs ou écorces d'Oranges : il faut les faire boüillir jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient bien molettes sous le doigt : alors vouls les ôterez et les rafraîchirez, les jettant dans de l'eau fraîche ; puis vous les êgoutez et les pressez fortement dans un linge : vous les pilez dans un mortrier et y mettez quelque jus de Citron, et les passez au tamis ; aprés quoy vous faites cuire du Sucre à la plume ; que vous mêlez avec vôtre Marmelade dans la poële; il faut deux livres de Sucre sur livre de Fruit. Vous remettez vôtre Marmelade sur le feu, et luy donnez cinq ou six boüillons, & vous l'empotez ensuite toute chaude."
#3
"To make Orange Marmalade. Take the best Seville oranges, cut them in quarters, grate them to take out the bitterness, and put them in water which you must shift twice or thrice a day, for three days. Then boil them, shifting the water till they are tender, shred them very small, then pick out the skins from the meat which you pulled out, and put it to the peel that is shred; and to a pound of that pulp, take a pound of double-refined sugar. Wet your sugar with water, and boil it up to a candy height (with a very quick fire) which you may know by the dropping of it, for it hangs like a hair; then take it off the fire, put in your pulp, stir it well together, then set it on the embers, and stir it till it is thick, but let it not boil. If you would have it cut like marmalade, add some jelly of pippins, and allow sugar for it."
4#
"To make Orange Marmalade. Take the clearest Seville oranges you can get, cut them in two, then take out all the pulp and juice into a bason, pick all the seeds and skins out of it, boil the rinds in hard water until they are tender (change the water two or three times while they are boiling) then pound them in a marble mortar, add to it the juice and pulp, and put them in the preserving pan, with double its weight in loaf sugar, set it over a slow fire, boil it a little more than half an hour, then put it into pots with brandy papers over them."
5#
"A very fine Orange Marmalade. — Take 50 Seville oranges and 12 lemons; have their weight in loaf-sugar; grate the oranges slightly all over to take away the bitterest part of the peel, cut the rind all round, and with a spoon separate it from the fruit without breaking the edge; boil the peel in 2 separate waters 20 minutes each time; the first water should be cold, the second boiling. The peel should be shred in extremely thin slices; separate the seeds and every bit of skin from the pulp; then mash it in a marble mortar; boil the sugar till it is a clear syrup; having dipped the lumps into cold water, add the pulp and juice; let it boil 1/4 of an hour; then add the shred peel; let it boil till tender. The peel only of the lemons is used; the lemons will do for lemon-pickle."
6#
"ORANGE MARMALADE. Rasp very slightly on a fine and delicately clean grater the rinds of some sound Seville oranges; cut them in quarters, and separate the flesh from the rinds; then with the small end of a tea, or egg, spoon, clear it entirely from the pips, and from the loose inner skin and film. Put the rinds into a large quantity of cold water, and change it when they have oiled about twenty minutes. As soon as they are perfectly tender lift them out, and drain them on a sieve; slice them thin, and add eight ounces of them to each pound of the pulp and juice, with a pound and a half of highly-refined sugar in fine powder; boil the marmalade quickly for half an hour, skim it well, and turn it into the jars. This marmalade has not a very powerful flavour of the orange-rind. When more of this is liked, either leave a portion of the fruit unrasped, or mix with the preserve some of the zest which has been grated off, allowing for it its weight of sugar. [...] Rinds of Seville oranges, lightly rasped and boiled tender, 2lbs.; pulp and juice, 4lbs.; sugar, 6lbs.: 1/2 hour. Or, weight of oranges, first taken in sugar, and added, with all the rinds, to the pulp after the whole has been properly prepared."
7#
"Orange Marmalade (an easy method).—Required: fruit and sugar as below. Cost, about 4d. per pound. Take equal weights of oranges and loaf sugar. Put the oranges whole into a preserving-pan, cover them with cold water, and bring them to the point of boiling. Pour off the liquid, put fresh water with the fruit, and boil gently until the rinds of the oranges can be easily pierced with the head of a pin. Drain the oranges, and cut them —skin, pulp, and everything— into very thin slices; remove the pips, and throw the fruit into a preserving- pan with half a pint of the water in which the oranges were last boiled to every pound of fruit, and half the sugar which is to be used. Simmer gently for thirty minutes, then add the remainder of the sugar, and boil twenty minutes longer, or until the marmalade jellies. Pour it into jars, and, when cold, cover and store for use. This will not be clear, as the white pith is used; but it is economical and of good flavour. The whole or part of the pith may be omitted for a better marmalade."
Orange marmalade - a brief note. English orange marmalade was prepared with Seville oranges although the earliest and latest versions (1623, 1894) used sweet oranges. There were subcategories that used a combination of sweet and bitter fruits ('Scotch' marmalade) and versions in which the cooked mixture was strained, resulting in a jam. So-called 'transparent marmalade' was the only recipe featured in The English Hvswife while 19th century authors offered this version separately. Another type of orange marmalade was prepared by cooking the fruits whole (skin, pith and flesh) but this was considered a less than good marmalade. Still it was the principal recipe featured by Lizzie Heritage (1894), apparently because housewives were already looking for time off the kitchen. Using Seville oranges resulted in bittersweet marmalade so it was necessary to either grate or steep the orange rinds in water for several days beforehand - François Massialot who omitted these stages doubled the amount of sugar. Otherwise, most cookbook authors suggested using one part fruit and one part sugar but not all of them weighed the fruit in the same manner. Half of them used only the pulp and were clear about it while others did not specify. Between the 1690s and 1740s (Massialot, Raffald), it was habitual to pound the orange skins in a mortar, enhancing their flavor. Around the same period - though not exactly by the same writers - it was recommended to cook the sugar into light syrup before mixing with the prepared fruit (Massialot 1692, Glasse 1747, Rundell 1805). Finally, modern obsession with pectin was not an obssession in the past and so none of these recipes used the orange seeds for helping the marmalade set. At least half of the cookbooks gave alternative recipes for jelly-like texture but Hannah Glasse did recommend the use of cooked apples 'for pectin' as well as more sugar - for those who liked their marmalade dense.
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ORANGE MARMALADE
In 1805 Maria Rundell gave precisely the quantities needed for English orange marmalade. 20% of the fruit were lemons,
of which only the skins were used. The Seville oranges were grated and
the rinds boiled twice for precisely 20 minutes. The pulp was then cleaned
from seed and pith, and mashed. Twice as much sugar as the fruit was
boiled into a syrup, mixed with the pulp and the juice of the fruit,
boiled for 15 minutes, mixed with the rinds, and cooked until tender. In the following version, the method is roughly adapted from hers.
I n g r e d i e n t s
10-15 oranges (about 3kg)
2 lemons
2kg sugar
M e t h o d
Wash, quarter and pare the oranges. Steep the rinds in fresh water for 24 hours, changing the water every 8 hours. Remove the white part of the rinds, using a spoon. Divide the rinds into sticks and the sticks into quarters. Process the pulp (pith, juice & all) in a food processor. Squeeze the lemons. Cook the sugar with the pulp in a 10lt cooking pot for about 15 minutes. Add the orange rinds and lemon juice, cover with the lid, and simmer until the marmalade is done - about 2 hours. To avoid its sticking or burning, stir the mixture from time to time. Empty into sterilized jars, cover with a thin layer of brandy and seal while hot.
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