I’ve loved Seville Orange marmalade for as long as I can remember. My love affair began early, when an uncle who worked as a flight engineer on Air India would bring back jars of this delicious marmalade from his trips back home. The prospect of cold shards of salted butter on warm toast slathered generously with this marmalade made visits to my cousin’s home very exciting. Bitter, sweet, and sour with those generous bites of candied peel with that strong perfume of citrus. On a side note, I really hated bitter food at that age but for some reason, bitter orange marmalade oddly enough turned out to be something I would latch on to with pure love.
For years, I’ve hunted for the Seville Orange or the sour orange as some call it. The season is very short in winter and easy to miss. It is said that this is the Queen of Marmalades so I hunted high and low, asked people, even the people at the farmer’s markets (missed out there) but finally found some at the Berkley Bowl Market here.
After much research, I came across Felicity Cloake’s recipe at her column and you should use this one to make the marmalade. It worked fantastic for me. The key is to watch the setting temperature, if you miss it, you’ll end up with an edible but runny jam (though I don’t mind that). Nigel Slater also has some notes on this which I recommend reading before you decide to embark on this marmalade making journey.
It looks like I’m set with my marmalade for a few months.
