The winter is long and the Seville orange season is short. So if you’re stuck inside this weekend and fancy filling your kitchen with the fabulous orangey aroma of home-made marmalade, here’s a great recipe. It’s taken from Fruit Trees in Small Spaces. If you have the book already, see pages 231-233.

You will need: 7lbs/3175g oranges, 3 pieces of cheesecloth cut in 45cm squares (I use muslin), 80ml lemon juice, 2160ml water, organic sugar, 8 x 227g jam jars and covers/twist off lids, preserving thermometer.

1.  Juice about half or up to three quarters of the oranges, pouring the juice as you go into a large, heavy, stainless steel pan. A higher ratio of juice gives you a delicate, jellylike marmalade.
2. Put the overlapping layers of cheesecloth in a small bowl, letting the edges of cheesecloth hang over the side. With a spoon, scrape the membranes from each juiced half into the bag, along with the pulp and seeds. Save the excavated peel halves for a batch of candied citrus (recipe also in Fruit Trees in Small Spaces).
3. With a sharp knife, remove the tops and tails from the remaining oranges and cut them in half from top to bottom. With the cut sides facing up, remove the cottony pith from the centre of each half by making two cuts into a ‘V’ shape. Add the trimmings to the bag.
4. Cut each orange half into even wedges no more than 1.5cm-thick, removing any seeds and adding them to the bag. Leave these wedges whole or cut them into thirds, quarters or smaller.
5. Scoop the fruit and any accumulated juice with a spatula into the pan as you go. Add the lemon juice and water to the pot. Securely tie up the cheesecloth bag and add it to the pan.
6. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the rind pieces are tender and offer no resistance to the tooth when tested, 20 minutes to 1 hour. After the rind is tender, remove the cheesecloth bag to a bowl, and place it in the fridge.
7. Measure the volume of the pan’s contents, pouring it into a large bowl as you go. Based on the fruit’s inherent sweetness and volume of cooked fruit, calculate a percentage of how much sugar to add. For sweeter fruit, such as navel oranges and tangerines, stir in 25% sugar to start until dissolved. For marmalades based on not-so-sweet fruit, such as ‘Seville’ oranges or grapefruit, start with about 60% sugar. Taste critically for a round, sweet and tart flavour balance, adding small increments of sugar until you like the flavour. The finished marmalade will retain this balance in concentrated form.
8. Check that the cooled cheesecloth bag is securely tied and squeeze it into the contents of the container, stirring in the pectin as you go; you’ll need to continue to squeezing it for several minutes until all the white pectin has been extracted. Discard the remaining pulp from the bag.
9. Put an oven tray of eight impeccably cleaned jam jars into a 110°C oven. Have as many new covers/twist-off lids handy. Place a dish in the fridge.
10. Stir the marmalade base to distribute the fruit segments and pour some into the cleaned pan, filling it no more than a third. If you have two good stainless steel pans, fill them both and cook both batches at the same time. Otherwise, cook the fruit in small, successive batches. These small batches cook quickly, preserving the fruit’s vibrant flavour and colour. Clip on a thermometer and bring the marmalade to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the mixture registers 104°C. To test the set, spoon a little mixture onto a chilled dish, wait about 20 seconds, and then nudge it. If it wrinkles and feels set, it’s done.
11. Remove the jars from the oven. Skim away any foam from the mixture in the cooking pan with a spoon and ladle the hot marmalade into the hot jars, filling them to within 0.4cm from the top. Wipe any spilled marmalade from the rim with a clean, damp cloth and firmly secure the lids.
12. Continue cooking the batches until all the mixture has been cooked and jarred.
13. After the marmalade cools, check the jars’ seal by pressing on their tops. If the tops are firm, the seal is good. The jars can be stored for up to a year. Unsealed jars should be stored in the fridge and will keep for six months.

Home grown oranges may be a fantasy for most of us, but there’s plenty of other fruit trees that you can grow in a small garden. Our new book Fruit Trees in Small Spaces is a great source of ideas.

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