This traditional Seville orange marmalade recipe is simple to follow and gives great results. Once you get used to homemade marmalade, you’ll never be satisfied with store-bought again. Enjoy a little luxury every morning at breakfast.
Traditional orange marmalade recipe
Traditional orange marmalade may sound like a challenge but it is actually quite easy to make. In fact, the main obstacle is finding the crucial Seville oranges to give you that deliciously bittersweet tang. The season is short and you have to track them down.
See also
Find more about marmalade in our account of different types of sweet preserves: Jam vs jelly – what is the difference?
If you prefer to use the electric pressure cooker, try Instant pot Seville orange marmalade.
Read this guide on How to sterilize jars for jam and other preserves.
Marmalade making has an important place in the kitchen diary of many British homes, and with good reason. I far prefer homemade marmalade, with its more delicate set and that fresh, sweet-bitter balance adjusted to our taste. Ready-made marmalade is just a little too thick by comparison.
Once you have found your oranges, this traditional orange marmalade recipe is easy to make. You just need to find a little time.
What is marmalade?
Marmalade is essentially a jelly preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruit. The main difference between recipes for marmalade and other jams and jellies is the need for water in the recipe and a longer cooking time to soften the thick skins of the fruit.
Seville oranges make the most common, traditional orange marmalade. In fact, in the UK, ‘marmalade’ is generally assumed to mean orange marmalade unless otherwise stated. Lime marmalade, lemon marmalade and grapefruit marmalade always need to be specified.
A taste of home
While other nations are willing to experiment with all sorts of jams and even chocolate spread at breakfast, marmalade retains a unique place on the British breakfast table, and the idea of an hotel without marmalade at breakfast is almost unthinkable.
Its association with home is such that marmalade crops up again and again throughout British children’s literature.
Alice was disappointed that the marmalade jar down the rabbit hole was empty, while E. Nesbit’s magically adventurous children spread it on their toast (and everything else) as liberally as Harry Potter would a hundred years later. And while A. A. Milne’s King was dismayed at the idea of marmalade without a little bit of butter on his bread, Queen Elizabeth II was famously happy to join Paddington Bear in his favourite marmalade sandwiches.
How do I make traditional Seville orange marmalade?
Making marmalade is similar to making any jam or jelly. You cook the fruit, add sugar and heat the resulting mix to a temperature of around 105°C (221°F) until it shows signs that it will set.
The main difference between marmalade and fruit jams is that the chopped skin in marmalade needs a lot more cooking than most fruit. One kilo of Seville oranges will need to simmer for 2 hours to make those thick, bumpy peels soft and edible.
The pith and pips from the oranges (and Seville oranges have a lot of pips and pith) are not wanted in the marmalade but contain the pectin necessary to set the jelly. They are cooked with the simmering fruit, tied into a muslin cloth so that they can be removed before the sugar is added.
Why make Seville orange marmalade?
- it’s delicious – refreshing, balanced and tangy
- it’s so much better than shop bought
- a traditional craft skill
- makes a lovely gift
Traditional marmalade ingredients
- Seville (marmalade) oranges – notoriously bitter and only available during a brief window early the in the year. If you can’t find them, you can get prepared marmalade oranges in a large tin all year round to use instead.
- Lemons – just the juice
- Granulated sugar – it’s there to sweeten and preserve the oranges rather than to flavour them, so you don’t need anything fancy. You can use a mix of golden or light muscovado with ordinary white sugar if you prefer.
Seville oranges
Seville oranges are the classic ingredient in a traditional marmalade recipe. Famously tart, you cannot eat them raw but they lend that tangy edge and fabulous fragrance to marmalade and to other recipes. The skins of these oranges are thick and slightly knobbly.
They are only available for a short season, in January or early February in the UK, which is the main market for them. Some supermarkets now label them ‘marmalade oranges’ instead.
If you don’t have time to make marmalade when you buy the oranges, simply freeze the fruit whole. However, this will degrade some of the pectin in the fruit, so add 10% more fresh lemon juice to compensate.
Alternatively, if you can’t get Seville oranges, then you can buy pre-cooked tinned marmalade oranges and peel, so that you just add the water and sugar. Ma Made, from traditional marmalade brand Robertsons, is widely available. Just follow the instructions on the tin.
How to make traditional Seville orange marmalade – step by step
Before you start, read my step-by-step instructions, with photos, hints and tips so you can make this perfectly every time.
Scroll down for the recipe card with quantities and more tips at the bottom of the page.
Step One – Wash the oranges, then cut in half and juice. The easiest way to juice is with an electric juicer, but if you don’t have one then a traditional manual juicer or reamer will also work perfectly well.
Put the juice in a large, deep pan, ready to cook.
Step Two – Use a spoon to scoop the pith and seeds out of the juiced orange halves. Put the pith and pips in a muslin cloth and tie it with a clean piece of string.
Step Three – Slice the orange peel. One quick way of doing this is to cut each half peel into three, then stack the three strips on top of each other and cut across into narrow strips. Orange marmalade can be thick cut or fine shred. Cut as you prefer.
Step Four – Add the water, cut peel, and bag of pips and pith to the juice in the pan. Heat to a gentle simmer.
Cook, uncovered, for 2 hours, until the peel is soft. If you think the liquid is evaporating too quickly, you can cover most of the pan with some foil, or pop the lid on and leave ajar.
Step Five – Test by allowing a piece of peel to cool, and then pressing it between your fingers. If it splits easily into two, it’s cooked. You can also test by cutting the peel on a plate with a spoon. It should cut easily.
At this point you have the option to cover the pan and leave overnight, and to finish making your marmalade the next day.
Step Six – Remove the bag of pips and squeeze out the juice, returning it to the pan. Don’t skimp, as the juice in the bag is very rich in pectin. Do this with extreme caution if the mixture is still hot, pressing the bag between two plates.
If you prefer, you can pre-warm the sugar in the oven to help it dissolve faster (though I never bother).
Now put the clean jars and lids into a low oven to warm and sterilize while you finish making the marmalade. More on how to sterilize jars here.
Step Seven – Add the sugar and the lemon juice. It looks like a lot, especially if you have let the cooked peel cool. Don’t worry, as it will all dissolve. The very bitter Seville oranges need this much sugar to make a tasty marmalade.
Step Eight – Heat the mixture on a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Stir as the sugar dissolves. Taste the marmalade to check the balance of flavours. You can add more sugar if necessary.
Step Nine – Once the sugar has dissolved, turn heat up high, and keep stirring. The marmalade should be at a vigorous rolling boil. Watch for a change in the way the bubbles form. This shows that you are getting to setting point. Cooking will take about 5–10 minutes once you start to boil the marmalade.
Step Ten – Now start checking to see if the marmalade has reached setting point. I use a digital probe thermometer to monitor the temperature, and test repeatedly with the flake or wrinkle test.
With experience, you will be able to see when homemade preserves are at setting point as the bubbles will change.
3 ways of testing marmalade setting points
- The temperature test. Really accurate electronic jam thermometers are readily available, and not expensive. They are much easier to read than traditional thermometers. Heat the marmalade to 105°C and then look for a thickening of the liquid.
However use temperature only as as a guide to setting point. - The wrinkle test. Place a couple of side plates in the freezer before you add the sugar. Once the marmalade is boiling, start testing by placing some on the plate. Allow it to cool and when you push your finger through the marmalade, if it’s setting you’ll see it wrinkle up a little ahead of your finger. This technique takes a bit of practice.
- The flake test. Take a spoonful of marmalade from the pan and turn it vertically to tip it out. If the marmalade runs off quickly and completely it hasn’t set. If a little remains on the spoon in a sort of wide drip, then the marmalade is ready. Again, this works best with some practice.
Read our complete guide to jam setting point for perfectly set marmalade every time.
Step Eleven – Allow your Seville orange marmalade to cool for about 10 minutes, and then give it a good stir to distribute the peel evenly. Transfer to the warmed jam jars. This slight cooling allows the jelly to thicken just enough to stop the peel rising to the top.
Transfer your marmalade into the jars while it is still hot. I like to keep the mess to a minimum by standing the jars in a roasting tray and pouring the marmalade into a sterilized pyrex jug, before filling the jars through a jam funnel.
Finally, fit the lids and allow to cool completely. The lids will pop as the marmalade cools, letting you know that they have safely sealed.
How much orange marmalade will this recipe yield?
This orange marmalade recipe is based on1 kg of oranges and 2 kg of sugar, which yields about 3 litres of marmalade, so 10 medium sized jars.
When preparing jam jars, it’s better to have too many than too few. Too many just means you don’t use one or two. Too few and you find yourself desperately trying to prepare jars as the marmalade cools.
If you do find that you need an extra jar in a hurry, wash it thoroughly in hot water, rinse well and then warm with boiling water. Leave to stand for a minute or so. Empty out the water and shake out as much as possible. Don’t dry with a cloth, just fill the pot with marmalade. I set pots like this aside for first use.
Serving suggestions
Enjoy marmalade on your morning toast in the classic style. Pair it with sharp hard cheese, if you’re feeling daring.
Melt it into a sweet sauce for pancakes and puddings.
Add it to delicious marinades.
Variations
- For some variety, you can use a mixture of sugar: try 50:50 white granulated sugar and light muscovado sugar.
- For a grown-ups only marmalade, stir 4 tablespoons of whisky into the pan just before filling the jars (based on 1 kg of oranges). Or maybe some Campari?
- You can also add some spice. Try adding a couple of cardamom pods in the bag of pith.
Storage
Store marmalade in a cool dark cupboard. It will last for years unopened. Once opened, use within a few weeks.
Don’t keep marmalade in the fridge. It is more liable to crystallise if you do, and this spoils the texture.
Ingredient ratios for traditional Seville orange marmalade
- Water – 2.5 litres of water per 1 kg of unpeeled oranges.
- Lemon juice – Add the juice of half a lemon per 250 g (about 3) oranges.
- Sugar – Seville oranges are very bitter, so they need a lot more sugar than other jams – about twice as much, in fact. I double the weight of oranges for the weight of sugar. Taste, and add more sugar if you need to. Take care, as the mixture will be hot!
Hints and tips
- Never try to pour hot preserves into cold jars. The shock can shatter them.
- You don’t have to add the sugar and set the marmalade right away. If you don’t have time to do it all in one go, you can peel and cook the oranges and then let them cool.
Allow the mixture to stand overnight covered, with the bag of pith and pips left in the peel mixture. Remove as normal before adding the sugar.
- I find the easiest way to fill the jars is to ladle marmalade into a Pyrex shatterproof glass jug, and pour it into the jam jars using a jam funnel. Fill to just touching the bottom of the funnel, which leaves a small gap at the top of the jar. I like to stand the jars in a roasting tin while I fill them to contain any mess.
FAQs
Microwave ovens don’t really work for making marmalade. The peel doesn’t really cook properly, and there isn’t really a suitable method of checking for set while the marmalade boils.
If you want a faster way of making marmalade, then the best option is my pressure cooker marmalade.
Provided you have sterilized the jars and they have sealed properly, a well-made marmalade contains enough sugar to preserve it for many years. As it ages, the marmalade darkens and the flavours deepen.
We are currently enjoying an eight-year-old jar, and usually keep our homemade marmalade for a year before we eat it.
Marmalade is more of a jelly than a jam. This is because you use the juice rather than the flesh of the fruit. The main difference in method between marmalade and jelly or jam, however, is the water in the recipe. This is necessary for citrus preserves, hence the distinction between jam or jelly and marmalade.
Yes! While honey, golden syrup and many jams may be off limits, orange marmalade is fine for low FODMAP diet.
More jam and jelly recipes
We love to preserve and have so many recipes for jams and jellies, all with step by step instructions so you can successfully make jam batch after batch. If you like this traditional orange marmalade recipe, why not try them?
Most of our jam recipes are small batch and none need added pectin.
If you like marmalade, try in my sticky orange marmalade loaf cake recipe
Traditional Seville Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
- 1 kg Seville oranges
- 2 lemons (juice only)
- 2.5 litres water
- 2 kg sugar
Instructions
- Wash the oranges Then cut in half and juice them. Put the juice in the pan, reserving the pith and pips, and the peels.1 kg Seville oranges
- Place the collected pith and pips onto a square of muslin, or jelly bag. Tie tightly shut.
- Slice the orange peel into narrow strips, and add to the juice.
- Add the water and the bag of pips and pith to the pan.2.5 litres water
- Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, and cook for 2 hours, uncovered, until the peel is cooked. Check that the peel is soft and will cut easily with a spoon.
- Remove the bag of pips and squeeze the juice from the bag into the pan. One easy way of doing this is by pressing the bag between two plates.
- Prepare clean jam jars. Arrange them on a roasting dish and placing in an oven on a low heat.
- Add the sugar to the pan, together with the lemon juice.2 lemons, 2 kg sugar
- Heat the mixture on a low setting to dissolve the sugar. Keep stirring as it dissolves.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a fast rolling boil. Keep boiling for 5–10 minutes, until you have reached the setting point. Check for a set.
Testing for setting point. Use one or more of these three methods.
- The temperature test. Really accurate electronic jam thermometers are readily available, and not expensive. They are much easier to read than traditional thermometers. Heat the marmalade to the 105°C and once it's that hot it should at at setting point. I always double check and test with a wrinkle test.
- The wrinkle test. Place a couple of side plates in the freezer before you add the sugar. Once the marmalade is boiling, start testing by placing some on the plate. Allow it to cool and when you push your finger through the marmalade, if it's setting you'll see it wrinkle up a little ahead of your finger. This technique takes a bit of practice.
- The flake test. Take a spoonful of marmalade from the pan and turn it vertically to tip it out. If the marmalade runs off quickly and completely it hasn’t set. If, however a little remains on the spoon in a sort of wide drip that doesn’t fall, then the marmalade is ready. Again, this works best with some practice.
Once setting point has been reached
- Let the marmalade cool for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to the warmed jam jars. Fit the lids and allow to cool completely.
Notes
Storage
Store marmalade in a cool dark cupboard. It will last for years unopened. Once opened, use within a few weeks. Don’t keep marmalade in the fridge. It is more liable to crystallise if you do, and this spoils the texture.Ingredient ratios for traditional Seville orange marmalade
- Water – 2.5 litres of water per 1 kg of unpeeled oranges.
- Lemon juice – Add the juice of half a lemon per 250 g (about 3) oranges.
- Sugar – Seville oranges are very bitter, so they need a lot more sugar than other jams – about twice as much, in fact. I double the weight of oranges for the weight of sugar. Taste the mixture, and add more sugar if needed, but take care, as the mixture will be hot!
Hints and tips
- Never try to pour hot preserves into cold jars. The shock can shatter them.
- You don’t have to add the sugar and set the marmalade straight away. If you don’t have time to do it all in one go, you can peel and cook the oranges and let them cool before adding the sugar and cooking. Allow the cooked oranges to stand overnight covered, with the bag of pith and pips left in the peel mixture. Remove as normal before adding the sugar.
- I find the easiest way to fill the jars is to ladle marmalade into a Pyrex shatterproof glass jug, and pour it into the jam jars using a jam funnel. Fill to just touching the bottom of the funnel, which leaves a small gap at the top of the jar. I like to stand the jars in a roasting tin while I fill them to contain any mess.
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