Granny’s Seville Orange Marmalade
Seville oranges are only available in the shops in January and February.They are full of pith and pips, and very bitter but make the very best marmalade. You can add fresh ginger or grapefruit or lemon to marmalade to ring the changes but this is the traditional recipe and the best. I use a large enamelled cast iron preserving pan and jam sugar, rather than ordinary granulated sugar. Jam sugar contains pectin which helps the marmalade to set. I have also invested in a jam thermometer - this takes the worry out of whether it has set or will be too runny. You will also need two 9 inch squares of butter muslin and some string. I stock pile jam jars during the year and when I am ready to make marmalade I sterilise them in the dish washer and keep them warm until I am ready to fill them.
Measure 8 pints (4.5 litres) water into a preserving pan. Cut the oranges and lemons in half and squeeze the juice out of them. Add the juice to the water and put all the pips and pith onto a square of muslin draped over a soup bowl. Cut the orange peel into thin shreds. Add the shreds to the water. Don’t discard any pith that is still clinging to the peel - this contains a lot of pectin and will help the marmalade set and in any case it will dissolve in the boiling. When there is a heap of pips and pith in the muslin fold it up to form a ball and tie it with string to one of the handles of the pan so it is immersed in the water. Continue to fill the other muslin square as you shred the rest of the peel. Tie this up and suspend it from the other handle on the pan. Bring the liquid up to simmering point and simmer gently for about two hours until the peel is completely soft - test by
squeezing a piece between your fingertips.
Remove the muslin bags of pips and leave to cool on a plate. Pour in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Make sure there are no sugar crystals left before you turn up the heat to high. Squeeze the muslin bags to extract all the sticky residue and add this to the pan. Stir it in. As soon as the mixture reaches a really fast boil, start timing. It will take about 15 minutes for the temperature to reach 220°C. If you don’t have a thermometer test by putting a small gloop onto a saucer that you have put in the fridge. If you draw a teaspoon through the mixture and it crinkles, it is set. If not Continue to fast boil and keep testing every 10 minutes or so.
Remove pan from heat and spoon off any scum. Leave the marmalade to settle for about 10 minutes then, using a jug, pour into the warmed jars. Cover with a waxed disc and seal while hot. Label and date when cold, and store for up to a year.
Eating it on hot buttered toast for breakfast is bliss. Hurry and make your marmalade now or you will have wait for the following January when the next lot of Seville oranges appear.
Theo Hodges
Theo Hodges was born in Kent. After a degree in Graphic Design she joined J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency as an Art Director working on accounts such as Rowntrees, Kraft and The Butter Council. While she was at University in Perugia, Italy she started collecting recipes from friends and family. In 1980 she set up her own design agency: Theo Hodges Design Consultants. For many years when they were young Theo, her sister and six cousins used to spend vacations at her Grandmother’s Victorian vicarage in Kent. ‘The thing about remembering childhood’ she says, is ‘there’s a whole lot of oblivion, and then out of it something floats up, quite sharp and clear. Many of the meals I can still see vividly and various recipes of mine were originally from Granny’s kitchen. ‘The kitchen garden was stuffed with raspberries, huge red dessert gooseberries, strawberries, runner beans, peas and much more with the hens in a shed at the back. But Granny only ate chicken breast and runner beans, followed by raspberries and Jersey cream - and therefore so did we. When raspberries were out of season, and in those days the season was much shorter, Granny made Victoria sponge cakes sandwiched with cream and home-made raspberry jam. On this limited but delicious diet we all thrived’. Theo’s mother was an excellent cook as well, and had been taught by the house- keeper at their house in Mougins, South of France. And once rationing was withdrawn in England in 1952 and good, fresh ingredients became available again, she amassed an enormous number of recipes which has formed the basis for Theo’s collection of family desserts.