Seville season.

The Seville oranges are back in the shops. Last year I went to my mother's to make marmalade; doing so this year has made it a tradition. We decided to make two batches: one plain, and a second "experimental".

For the first batch, we scored and peeled the 1.5kg of oranges, then cut the peel to the size we wanted in the final marmalade. We squeezed the fruit to extract as much juice as possible, then tied all the pulp and seeds in a muslin bag, alongside a couple of quartered lemons (for extra pectin). We cooked the peel and bag with the juice and another 2 litres of water in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes until it was soft. Sugar inhibits softening, so the peel needs to be the texture you would want to spread on toast before you add any.

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We began by adding 1.5kg of white granulated sugar for a 50/50 ratio of fruit to sugar. Many recipes suggest doubling the amount of sugar to fruit, but beginning with less allows more adjusting to taste. In the event we added another 500g sugar. We used a thermometer to measure the jam to 105 degrees. Any hotter and the sugar will begin to caramelise and go chewy. After the jam reached the correct temperature, we tested its set on cold plates, checking to see if it wrinkled. After fairly lengthy simmering, carefully keeping it at 105, it finally did so. We used a jam funnel to pour the jam into thoroughly sterilised jars.

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Comparing this year's marmalade with the final jar from last year, we noticed the new batch was considerably lighter in colour and had a brighter, less caramelised flavour, despite similar consistencies. My mother remembered that last year we had used more a higher ratio of water and hadn't added lemons to the muslin bag. My theory is that the reduced water content meant the jam took less time to reach 105 degrees (which can only happen after the water has evaporated), and the extra lemons boosted the pectin, allowing setting to happen earlier. These factors combined to mean the peel and sugar were cooked for less time, resulting in less caramelisation. Whether this is more desirable comes down to personal preference, but I liked it.

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The next day, we cooked up the same amount of peel and juice (yes, this did take up an entire weekend). I wanted to test a few different flavours, but couldn't quite face cooking them all from scratch and infusing the spices properly, so it possibly wasn't an entirely fair test. Let's consider it an investigation into flavour combinations which can be done more thoroughly on another occasion.

There were a few spices I wanted to try: star anise, coriander, cardamom, vanilla, and ginger. I also wanted to try adding cacao and using muscovado sugar.

I used most of the oranges to make a basic marmalade as we had yesterday, keeping a few aside for the muscovado trial. However I added salt to the 50/50 fruit/sugar recipe, which my mother hadn't let me do the first time round. Online discussion of adding salt is mixed, but I think it definitely counteracted the bitterness of the oranges, and I didn't need to add any further sugar.

I then divided the jam into jars and stirred through either few star anise; some crushed coriander or cardamom seeds; cacao powder or vanilla extract. On reflection, using whole vanilla pods might have been a better idea. So far, I have only opened the star anise, which was delicious where the star anise flavour had penetrated the marmalade, but it hadn't got as far as I wanted. The cacao marmalade tasted very good as I was washing up.

For the ginger marmalade, I diced and simmered root ginger in a small amount of water. It was very powerful, and I was a little worried about it overpowering the oranges. However after a week in the jar the ginger had mellowed to the point of eclipse. It worked well as a flavour combination, but next time I would use much more ginger, and possibly boil it up with the peel in the first place. Alternatively I might try adding stem ginger.

Trying to make so many different marmalades simultaneously, it was possibly inevitable I would mess up at least one of them. The muscovado sugar marmalade had been merrily bubbling away at around 110 degrees while I was mixing all the other spices. By the time I noticed, it was already distinctly "tacky". However it tasted sensational, and I think it will be a fantastic ingredient. A properly made muscovado marmalade is definitely on the cards.

At this point, the main lesson has been "the flavour combinations work, now add more".

Update:

I used the vanilla marmalade to make a "hot cross bun" bread and butter pudding. It was scrummy.