Blood Orange Marmalade - help please.

[OneSillyEagle]

Long story short.

87 year old mother has what must be approaching an unhealthy obsession with BOM.

Due to seasonal unavailability in shops, I'm ending up making regular batches but can't get the damn stuff to set properly. Mum ploughs on through jar after syrupy jar.

I've used all sorts of recipes. With jam sugar, with granulated, with pectin with and without lemon, I've boiled it to 105°C, made sacrifices to the gods and danced in the woods naked under a new moon. I've done the thing with cold saucers in the fridge.

I'm following recipes specifically for BOM from all over the internet.

Ideas?

The worst of it is that I dislike marmalade.....

Boil it longer?
Does it have to be blood orange? Because the mamade stuff is excellent if not.

Blood oranges a central to the flavour of the finished product.

Are you testing the set before you switch it off? Because the usual advice is 'boil for longer'.

The place I work at the pastry chefs make marmalade.
She gets it to the same temp then puts some on a plate in the fridge to see setting or puts some in a jar.
If the shred sinks it means it's too thin.
She continues to boil.

Looks like you can buy it direct from Tiptree here https://www.tiptree.com/products/tiptree-blood-orange-marmalade

You can order it in bulk online from several sites.

https://www.tiptree.com/products/tiptree-blood-orange-marmalade?variant=44383966134588&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22254868450&gbraid=0AAAAAp2WZTCB725abifr3z2dOAee5lc2T&gclid=CjwKCAjw3MXBBhAzEiwA0vLXQdR5-1aOEukLEa5OeaYzVY4o2jsSqyhZdQxJLd4Ui6CN6Qd-hIiIFhoCUbcQAvD_BwE

Even just basic sugar boiled in water will set if you use enough sugar and boil it for long enough so maybe check those two things first.

Back to the drawing board then.

Reboil with new pectin and lemon to activate.

Yes, it needs to be blood orange. I am aware of Tiptree locally, but the quantities that she gets through!😨

I've never made BOM but do make seville orange to leave for guests in my holiday let. Usually I make enough in January and February to last the year, but last year didn't so froze oranges to make batches during the summer.

I soon realised that there's a huge difference between making batches on a cold winter's day and a hot summer's day. Standing over boiling cauldron waiting for the elusive set was no fun. Then I discovered the joys of bottled pectin - once the marmalade is all boiled properly you chuck all the pectiin in and a set is reached within minutes. The set is still softish, but doesn't run off toast. I can only do 1kg of oranges a time, and one bottle is perfect (still add lemon juice too, belt and braces). It does add to the cost, but has made my marmalade far less hit and miss.

Hi, I make marmalade from Sicilian oranges which we grow and was told not to use blood oranges as they don’t set. We traditionally use them for juice & not marmalade. I still did make some, but mixed about 2/3 blood red oranges with 1/3 normal ones. It still didn’t “set” as well as the rest but it has made the most fantastic conserve type thing!

@OneSillyEagle I have never made Blood Orange Marmalade, only Seville Orange Marmalade, but DH eats more marmalade than Paddington so for the last few years we have been making our own. Typically we need about two dozen jars to last him a year.

We had the same setting problem as you until this year and, like you, tried both with and without pectin. However, finally, this year we think we have cracked it. The vital piece of information came courtesy of Nigel Slater's Christmas Chronicles.

So, you know how when you prep the fruit and put all the pips and pulp in a piece of muslin and that gets tied up in to a bag which then sits in the pan? OK, so what seems to make the difference is that you do all that prepping the day before you are going to actually boil it up and make it in to marmalade and then you leave it to stand overnight with the bag of pulp and pips soaking in with the fruit and juice and water.

I think this additional soaking means more pectin gets released, hence a better set. This years batches (we have to do two batches to get a years supply) are ace; the best we have ever made and a perfect set.

Thanks Nige!

Thank you. I'll try this.

I wish mum only got through two dozen jars a year. 😂

I have no advice but you are a very good daughter!

It makes my task of keeping my mom stocked with second hand jigsaw puzzles seem considerably easier. She’s up to 3 a week but at least I’m not boiling fruit and sugar in industrial quantities!

I too have participated in marmalade making, though not blood orange, and have never put plates in the fridge to check set. In Sweden the advice is to put a small dollop on a plate and drag the side of your (artisanal) wooden spoon through the center. If it runs together keep boiling. If it stays separate you’re grand. I would however in your shoes add extra pectin. 😉 Very interested to see if the Nigel S idea works. You’re a good daughter and I’ll be using you to guilt trip my own at an opportune moment.

I agree with pp saying you don't have enough pectin. Just in case the Nigel Slater trick still doesn't give you enough, and it's too expensive to buy in bottles in the quantities you need, did you know that you can make it very successfully from underripe apples or crab apples? Not a lot of help unless you or a neighbour have a tree, but you never know. You can also use extra lemons or even just lemon seeds, every time you use a lemon put the seeds or just the shells if you've squeezed it in the freezer and just add them when you make the next batch.

Is there a jigsaw exchange near you? Our local library runs one, you just have to take in a jigsaw of comparable size and get one on return

Totally feel your struggle. Blood Orange Marmalade can be so fussy. Maybe try pairing the next batch with something you do like—like using it as a glaze on chicken wings or pork in the air fryer. Turns out, even failed marmalade makes a killer sauce in Air Fryer Recipes.

Totally feel your struggle. Blood Orange Marmalade can be so fussy. Maybe try pairing the next batch with something you do like using it as a glaze on chicken wings or pork in the air fryer. Turns out, even failed marmalade makes a killer sauce in Air Fryer Recipes.

I can’t seem to find one but thanks for the suggestion. There is a jigsaw library near me but they charge £2 a go, which DM considers daylight robbery as the charity shops near her only charge £1.

Good luck with your marmalade experiments OP!