This week I chanced upon a few old friends; being orange trees I use to procure the odd orange from when I was growing up. The difference was that the area which as kids we referred to as the abandoned orchard is now a new subdivision. For the sake of old times, I borrowed a dozen oranges and decided I would make some marmalade. I spent a bit of time surfing the net with plenty of people saying marmalade is the hardest jam to make. I say this is garbage, here is my recipe, adapted from about five different ones and taking the easy option where possible.
After taste testing my harvest I had 11 oranges left, not all the same not perfect and typically home grown navels. These were washed then peeled with a sharp peeler, easy
Next I had to cut the peel into nice thin even strips, hint make sure you have a razor sharp knife (forget the gimmicks, buy a quality waterstone and learn to use it). This took a bit of time and patience but after a while I worked out you could pile 6-10 peels together and do them together.
Following this, the remaining pith was peeled from the oranges and they were split in half. I expected this to be hard but with the peel gone these nice thick skinned navels were easier to peel than normal.
At this stage, the halves were sliced thinly (again sharp knife, too easy) then placed in a bowl with the sliced peel and around 700ml of water before covering and leaving overnight (mine were left two nights as I was busy). The fruit and peel weighed in at 1.5kg (weigh it as it dictates your sugar weight).
Most recipes tell you to take the seeds and pith and wrap it in cloth and let it sit in water to make the pectin. These navels were seedless and I did say I was going the lazy option which was 25 grams of Jam Setta.
When I finally found time, the orange soup was thrown into a saucepan with another 600ml of water and simmered for an hour. It then had 25 grams of Jam Setta and 1.5kg of white sugar (straight out of the bag not preheated like many recipes say to do) added. It was brought back to the boil for around 15 minutes, tested on a saucer from the freezer then taken off the heat.
My jars were taken from the oven and after the jam had sat for ten minutes, it was decanted into the hot jars and they were capped immediately.
Can't wait for breakfast
Now go and find some backyard oranges and have a go. Next batch will have some ginger grated into it.
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