I do not usually make jam but I love bitter orange marmalade and is not easy to find a good one. I was in Fareway about ten days ago and found Seville oranges, I could not resist and decided to make marmalade.
I browsed the web for recipes and found two I liked. One is from
Simply Recipes and the other is David Labovitz’s recipe. The recipe from Simple Recipes has a much higher percentage of fruit and should result in a much more intense fruit flavor, the recipe from David Labivitz is is reviewed as a more classic recipe for Seville orange marmalade.

I decided to go for a more intensely flavored marmalade with higher fruit content but not too much and increased a bit the amount of sugar and water

Ingredients (for about 8 small jars)

• 1.3 Kg of Seville oranges (in my case 14 small oranges)
• 6 cups of water
• 6 cups of sugar

1) Juice – Wash the oranges, cut them in half and juice them.

2) Save seeds and membranes – As you juice the oranges save the seeds in one glass. With the help of a spoon scrape all the membranes, and some of the white part, from the juiced half rinds. Save the membranes in a bowl.

3) Scrape and cut the rind – Take each half rind, with a paring knife cut it in half and scape some more of the white part. Then slice it in this strips with a chef knife.

4) Bag membranes and seeds – Put the seeds and membranes into 4 layers of cheesecloth, tied up tightly with string, or into a muslin jelly bag (I used bag hand made by me for the membranes and a spice bag for the seeds).  Membranes and seeds contain the pectin necessary to solidify the marmalade.

I ended up with:

• 1 and 3/4 cups of juice
• 300 gr of rinds
• bags with membranes and seeds

5) Cooking 1st part -

Put the orange juice, the rinds, and the membranes and seeds bags in a pot.

Add the water.

As the mixture cooks, the pectin from the seeds and membranes will be extracted into the mixture.

Bring to a boil and boil for about 30 minutes or until the rinds are soft.

Then remove the pot from the heat, take out the bags with membranes and seeds and let them cool down on a plate.

6) Measure cooked mixture, and add sugar and pectin -

Measure the cooked fruit and add the same amount of sugar.

I got 6 cups of cooked oranges, and added 6 cups of sugar.

Squeeze the bags of seeds and membranes to extract 2 to 4 Tbsp of pectin, and add the pectin to the fruit mixture.

7) Cooking 2nd part -

Heat the fruit mixture on medium and boil, stir occasionally and cook for about 30 minutes or so to set. The cooking time may vary, therefore you will need to check it frequently.

If you have a candy thermometer, attach it to the side of the pot. When the mixture reaches a temperature of 220°F the marmalade is ready.

To check if the marmalade is ready you can also do the following. Keep a few small plates in the freezer. Put a bit of marmalade on a chilled plate to check if it is runny and thin keep cooking, if it holds its shape and has a jelly consistency it is ready.

8) Sterilize the jars

Put the jars in a large pot with water, and boil for 10 minutes. I use a pasta pot with the insert, so that the jars don’t touch  the bottom of the pot.

Put the jar lids in a bowl and pour hot water on them.

Let the jars dry and cool down.

9) Canning

Pour the marmalade in the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space on the top.

Close the jars and wait for them to “pop” as the vacuum seal is created.

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