Orange Marmalade

A small bowl of fresh marmalade with fresh orange!!!

This recipe makes 3 jars like these

Last week we got a bag of oranges and I was wondering how to best use them without wasting! Well, got an idea to try out Jam or Marmalade from my dear hubby.. so read recipes online and offline but was not sure if I could really make it. The recipes simply seemed so complicated! but luckily got a simpler recipe which needed no pectin or preservatives and no difficult heart-breaking cooking terms.. so gave a try and was happily surprised to get the marmalade intact!

A must try for all who doubt your cooking skills :) and definitely you will love the freshness in taste compared to the store bought Jams and Spreads. Also, its cheaper too.. about 6 oranges gives you around 3 bottles of Jam.

Ingredients:

Oranges (Any type of orange, bitter ones also can give u good taste) - 6 nos
Sugar                                                                                                    - 1.2 kg (roughly 6 cups)
Lemon                                                                                                  - 1 nos

The orange skin floats atop on the marmalade!

Water (as required)

Method:

• First wash the oranges well in clean water to remove any dust particles
• Drop the oranges in a big pan and add water to cover them. Add a lemon along with the orange and set to heat. 
• Let the oranges simmer for about 2 hours. Do not boil them or cook them. Slow cooking gives the best results
• After the oranges gets bloated up after 2 hours, remove them from the pan and cut into halves and scoop out the pulp along with the seeds (if any) and add it back to the pan and set to boil
• Now wash the orange peels/ skin and remove the white layer inside the skin using a spoon and chop the orange skin into small pieces
• The orange mixture would have boiled by now, remove from fire and let it cool down a bit.
• Place a muslin cloth in a strainer and strain out the juice from the orange pulp mixture. 
• Around 5 cups of concentrated juice will be obtained from the mixture, (if it seems less, add extra orange juice or water to it to make 5 cups) 
• Now put the chopped orange skin, extracted juice and the sugar back to the pan and stir until the sugar gets dissolved
• Bring to boil with occasional stirring to prevent scorching. Make sure the stove is low to prevent over flowing
• After about 20 min, you will find the mixture turning into a darker shade. Boil until you get one string consistency
• To test, place a drop in a cold saucer and place in freezer for 2 min to see if gets set. (If it gets set, you can remove from fire, if not continue boiling till you get to that stage.)
• Let it cool for a minute, stir gently and remove any froth if present
• Pour into glass bottles or jars or cans and leave about half inch head space
• Seal it as you like and let it set out overnight. 
• Refrigerate once you break the seal and start using them.

Note:

This recipe makes about 3 Jars of Marmalade.
The white layer under the orange peel gives the bitter taste, for those who like the bitter sweet taste, do not remove the white part. 


Do send in your feedback and let me know how things worked!