We (meaning I got to do most of the work) decided to make bitter orange marmalade. Seville oranges usually hit the stores here around February, so we were able to easily find the proper oranges at Central Market. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and began making the marmalade according to this recipe. I forgot how many oranges to buy, so I ended up buying one too many. I used them all anyway. During the process, I determined that it was so incredibly bitter it was inedible. So, I began adding in sugar. I ended up adding in four extra cups of sugar, bringing the total sugar to twelve cups. I also added in a couple of tablespoons of Grand Marnier and a tablespoon of our homemade vanilla (which is about double the strength of regular vanilla). After all of these additions, the marmalade is still bitter, but is much smoother in flavor. It's also edible!
Here's the recipe:
7 Seville Oranges
1 Navel Orange (or other large regular eating orange)
10 cups of water
12 cups of sugar
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 Tablespoon double strength vanilla (or two Tablespoons regular strength vanilla)
The procedure:
Cut all of the oranges in half.
Or get a big strong man to do it for you...
Holy moley, that's a lot of seeds!
Get that same big hot man to squeeze the juice out of the oranges. Note that he put a non-reactive metal strainer over the bowl. The strainer will catch the seeds so we can use them later for their pectin.
Chop the oranges up into little pieces. We shot for something a bit larger than a dice. Which, by the way, was small enough that most of the rind pieces dissolved by the end of the cooking process. You literally use every piece of the orange in this cooking process, so do not get rid of the pulp that's left after squeezing.
Oooohhhh...pretty rinds.
Put the seeds into a cheesecloth bag. We used one that we found at the beer making store. Tie the bag tightly so the seeds won't escape. Put the bag of seeds, rinds, and juice into a large pot. We used Mark's beer making pot and it was too large. You really could use a pasta pot for this.
Add in 10 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Cook it about 30 minutes (you'll see that the peels will get a bit translucent) and then let it sit overnight. Allowing it to sit longer gives the seeds more time to release their pectin, which is important as pectin is key in making jam.
By the way, the smell of this on the stove is heavenly. It smells like the best orange juice you've ever had. And, if you're wondering how to store this overnight, I just covered it and left it on the stove. I figured that since I'd be boiling the tar out of it the next day, it would be fine.
The next day, add in your sugar.
Stir your mountain of sugar into the orange mixture. As you can see, I followed my candy making habit of using a wooden spoon. I think it'd be fine to use a metal one too (so long as it's a non-reactive metal), it's just that I always reach for the wooden ones.
Note that my sugar amount is higher than the recipe I used. The reason for this is that I tasted the mixture (during the last boil) and it was painfully bitter. So, I added sugar until I finally got it past the super bitter flavor.
Bring it to a boil and then drop it down to a hard simmer/light boil. By the way, this the reason for the big pot - sugar items grow. So, you always want to use a pot that's at least 2-3 times larger than your mixture when you're dealing with mountains of sugar.
Also, since you're working with sugar, there is always the possibility of it burning. so, stir it fairly often (every 5 minutes or so). When you stir, stir gently. You don't want to splash the mixture up onto the walls of the pan as it will create sugar crystals. Those crystals will not mix back into your product well and will cause other crystals to form.
I used a candy thermometer to measure the temperature of the mixture. Since I used way too big of a pot, I couldn't do what I usually do - attach the thermometer to the pot. So, I recommend using a shorter pot so you don't have to hang your hand over into the pot, risking steam burns, to get the temperature.
Simmer that sucker for about 45 minutes, or until the temperature is consistently 210 Fahrenheit. Ultimate jelling temperature is 220 Fahrenheit. Your mixture will plateau at 210 for quite a while. So, you'll be gently boiling the mixture for quite some time before it will change properties enough to actually increase that last ten degrees.
Now that you've boiled the mixture for about 45 minutes and it's reached 210 Fahrenheit, remove the seed packet. Make sure to use your tongs to squeeze any remaining juice out.
Continue the gentle boil until the mixture reaches 220 Fahrenheit. You can also do a test to see if it'll jell. Put a plate into the freezer for a few minutes then drop a bit of the mixture onto it. Put the plate back into the freezer for a few minutes. Pull it out and run your finger through the mixture. If it wrinkles up and resists you, then it's jelling.
It'll look like this. You can tell you're getting close as the mixture starts foaming up.
Turn off the heat, and it'll look like this:
Skim the foam off and toss it. Add in the vanilla and Grand Marnier. Stir well. Then, can like usual.