Ingredient

Seville orange

The Seville is a bitter orange, and it is nearly inedible raw — sour, seedy and resinous. It exists in British kitchens for one reason, which is marmalade, and it is very much better at that job than any sweet orange. Its season runs from late December to early February and then it is gone.

Why the bitterness is the point

Marmalade needs three things a sweet orange struggles to supply: acid, pectin and bitterness. The Seville has all three in quantity. Its pips and pith are extraordinarily rich in pectin, its juice is sharp enough to set a preserve without added lemon, and its peel carries the bitter edge that stops a jar of sugar and citrus tasting like sweets.

A marmalade made from sweet oranges is not a failure so much as a different thing — softer, blander, and usually needing added pectin and lemon juice to set at all.

The bitterness comes largely from naringin and related compounds in the peel and pith, and it mellows but does not disappear during the long simmer. That residual edge is what makes marmalade a breakfast preserve rather than a pudding.

What else to do with them

Nobody has to make forty jars.

• Freeze them whole. This is the single most useful thing to know. Sevilles freeze perfectly and marmalade made from frozen fruit is indistinguishable. Buy in January, make in June.
• Bitter orange curd, which is sharper and more interesting than lemon curd and much less common.
• In a duck or pork braise. The juice of one or two, with the peel, does the same job as the classic orange sauce but with far more character.
• Seville orange ice cream or sorbet, where the bitterness stops it being sickly.
• Bigarade sauce, the classic French bitter-orange sauce for duck, which is what the fruit is for in that tradition.
• A splash of the juice in a gin drink, which is where the fruit ended up in the first place — the peel flavours a great deal of what is in a drinks cabinet.

Getting the fruit ready for marmalade

The method below is preparation only. The setting and the boiling are their own subject.

1. Scrub the fruit well. Seville skin is thick and often unwaxed, but it is worth washing.
2. Halve and juice them, keeping every pip and every scrap of membrane. This is where the pectin is.
3. Tie the pips and pulp into a square of muslin. This bag goes into the pan and comes out before potting.
4. Cut the peel to the thickness you want. Fine shred, chunky cut and whole-halves are all traditional and it is entirely a matter of taste.
5. Soak the peel and juice overnight if you like. It softens the peel and shortens the cooking, though it is not essential.

Choosing and storing

What to look for

Rough, thick, slightly knobbly skin. Deep orange. Heavy for its size. Blemishes matter very little in a fruit that is going to be boiled.

Quantity

A kilogram of fruit makes roughly five or six standard jars, depending on how much sugar and water go in.

Freezing

Whole, in a bag, for up to a year. Do not bother peeling or juicing first — the freezing actually softens the peel usefully.

Substitutes

None that are really equivalent. A mixture of sweet oranges, a grapefruit and two or three lemons approaches the acidity and bitterness but will need added pectin.

Common questions