Orange marmalade is usually complicated but today's adapted recipe is not. If you were sceptical about the English & French versions I shared in this post, here's a classic from Pellegrino Artusi that you are going to fall in love with. The method is simple and the result delicious. I used Navel oranges with no seeds but I had great faith in everything the famous author recommends and my fruit & sugar mix, enhanced with a tiny amount of lemon juice, turned out just right, yielding a lovely marmalade.
But first, let's chat about oranges a little. Do you believe that oranges might be the golden apples of the Hesperides? Even though different types of yellow fruit, including quinces, have also been considered, there are some facts that almost persuade me: a) the Latin common name for orange is pomum aurantium, b) the Greek botanical name of the citrus fruits is εσπεριδοειδή (Hesperidoids) and c) orange blossom and fruits may co-exist on trees for the entire year instead of dying within a month, as is the case with other trees. On the other hand, citrus fruits were introduced to Europe by the Arabs who brought a few varieties to Sicily in the 9th century and Εσπερία (Hesperia) literary meant 'the country of the sundown' while oranges are naturally grown in parts of Asia, therefore east of Greece.
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| The Garden of the Hesperides by Frederick Leighton - ca. 1892 |
The golden apples of the Hesperides were depicted in several paintings with three nymphs dancing or sleeping under the fruit-laden trees although other versions of the myth refered to as many as seven Hesperides, or Atlantides (i.e. daughters of Atlas, the Titan who held the sky in place). Whether oranges grant immortality, like the mythical golden apples, is uncertain, except perhaps figuratively. The scene in Botticelli's famous Primavera takes place in an orange grove and Sun King, Louis XIV of France, would spend a fortune on the design of his orangerie in Versailles.
Back to the orange marmalade, here is the extract from Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891):
"743. Conserva di aranci
- Aranci, N. 12.
- Un limone di giardino.
- Zucchero bianco fine, quanto è il peso degli aranci.
- Acqua, metà del peso degli aranci.
- Rhum genuino, quattro cucchiaiate.
Con le punte di una forchetta bucate tutta la scorza degli aranci, poi teneteli in molle per tre giorni cambiando l'acqua sera e mattina. Il quarto giorno tagliateli a metà ed ogni metà a filetti grossi mezzo centimetro circa, gettandone via i semi. Pesateli e solo allora regolatevi per lo zucchero e per l'acqua nelle proporzioni indicate. Metteteli al fuoco da prima colla sola acqua e dopo dieci minuti di bollitura aggiungete il limone tagliato come gli aranci. Subito dopo versate lo zucchero e rimestate continuamente finchè il liquido non avrà ripreso il forte bollore, perchè altrimenti lo zucchero precipita al fondo e potrebbe attaccarsi alla cazzaruola.
Per cogliere il punto della cottura, versatene a quando a quando qualche goccia su di un piatto, soffiateci sopra e se stenta a scorrere levatela subito. Aspettate che sia tiepida per aggiungere il rum, e versatela nei vasi per custodirla come tutte le altre conserve di frutta, avvertendovi che questa ha il merito di possedere una virtù stomatica. Del limone si può fare anche a meno."
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