Orange marmalade

Learn how to make orange marmalade from whole citrus fruit with this easy recipe! All you need are oranges, sugar, and lemon juice to make it.

If you've never made it and aren't familiar with making preserves at home please read about how to make marmalade and the marmalade setting point before proceeding!

Jump to:

• The easiest way to make it at home
• Types of oranges
• Other ingredients
• Achieving the perfect set
• Tools and equipment
• Canning the marmalade
• Storage
• Cookbooks on Preserves
• How to eat marmalade
• Frequently asked questions
• 📖 Recipe

The easiest way to make it at home

I like to use whole fruit to make marmalade, which makes it so easy and pretty foolproof, dare I say! There are a few basic steps to making orange marmalade using the whole fruit method:

• The citrus fruit are boiled in a large pot of water, whole, until they are very tender and soft.
• The soft-boiled fruit are then sliced thinly, and combined with sugar and lemon juice. The pits are discarded.
• The orange marmalade is boiled to 219–220 ºF (104–105 ºC). This is the ideal setting temperature for marmalade based on my tests.
• The marmalade is transferred to jars to seal them using the water bath method.

Types of oranges

You can make marmalade from any citrus fruit, really. For orange marmalade, Seville oranges are especially popular because of their bitter notes that are a good balance for all the sugar.

Truly though, if you are following a recipe like this one that uses whole fruit, you can use most oranges. I made this batch with simple navel oranges from the grocery store. You can also try to use smaller fruits, like clementines for a different flavour.

Other ingredients

Marmalade is really easy to make and actually, you don't need any special ingredients. For this recipe, all you need are oranges, sugar, and a little lemon juice.

The sugar I use is "special fine," which is very similar to granulated sugar. Some may favour superfine sugar or fruit sugar. Both of these sugars have smaller crystals and are faster to dissolve, reducing the likelihood of it crystallizing down the road.

Honestly, marmalade takes a long time to boil, and given the acidity of the mixture, it's unlikely that sugar crystallization would be an issue. Just make sure that your sugar is properly dissolved before you boil the mixture to set it. Start it on low and let the mixture slowly heat up to properly dissolve the sugar before cranking it up to boil it.

Don't use jam sugar in this recipe. It contains pectin and citric acid, both of which are unnecessary here.

This recipe and most marmalade recipes do not require that you add extra pectin. Citrus fruits have a lot of pectin in them, and much of it is located in the skin, contrary to popular belief. You don't need to boil the marmalade with the seeds and as you can see, with this method, the marmalade sets beautifully!

Achieving the perfect set

You have three basic options for determining if your marmalade has cooked enough and will set properly after cooling:

1. the bubbles: when the marmalade first comes to a boil, the bubbles are quite volatile, they form and pop almost instantaneously, whereas when the marmalade has thickened enough, the bubbles will be more stable and resemble blinking fish eyes. These visual cues are hard to see for beginners, so if you are new to making preserves, this might not be the best technique for you.
2. the wrinkle plate test: freeze a few small saucer plates in your freezer overnight. When you think your marmalade is cooked enough, retrieve a saucer from the freezer and place a dollop of hot marmalade on the plate. Put it back in the freezer for 1 minute, then take it out and push the dollop with your finger: if the dollop wrinkles nicely, your marmalade is probably done, if it's still too fluid to wrinkle, keep cooking.
3. the temperature: measure the temperature with a candy thermometer. You want to cook marmalade to somewhere around 104 ºC (219–220ºF). Don't overcook your marmalade because the peel will become chewy and the sugar will caramelize, so be careful how high you push the temperature before you stop cooking.

This recipe and method works perfectly with navel oranges or Seville oranges, and I've also used it to make grapefruit marmalade using pink grapefruits flavoured with vanilla bean, and even three fruit marmalade made from oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.

If you prefer a finer-cut marmalade, try this lime marmalade recipe.

Tools and equipment

You will need a kitchen scale to make marmalade. You need to know the weight of the citrus fruits you are starting with in order to determine how much sugar to use. Most marmalades are made from a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar, by weight, if not more sugar than fruit.

To measure the temperature as the marmalade bubbles, I highly recommend using an instant-read thermometer. I use a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but it's hand-held. Marmalade splashes so this might not be ideal for you. A probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

To seal the jars, I highly recommend investing in a canning kit, which will make your life so much easier when it comes to making homemade preserves, jams, and marmalades! The kit includes:

• a big pot to boil the jars
• a rack to hold the jars
• jar-lifting tongues
• a tool for measuring headspace and removing air bubbles
• a funnel that is heatproof and non-reactive (which is especially important when dealing with high-acid preserves)

Canning the marmalade

If you choose to can the jars of marmalade for longer storage, you need to bring a large pot (also called a canning kettle) of water to boil at the same time as you wait for the marmalade to reach a boil. When the canning kettle water reaches a simmer, wash the jars and place them on a sheet pan in a warm oven at 250 °F for at least 20 minutes. You can do all these steps at the same time while the marmalade is boiling on the stove.

When the marmalade is ready, fill the jars to ¼ inch from the rim. Place the lids on the jars and tighten until fingertight. Use a jar rack or jar lifter, if you have one, to lower the filled jars into the boiling water in the canning pot. Make sure there is at least an inch of water over the jars. Once the water in the pot comes back up to a boil, boil the jars for 5 minutes. Turn the stove off and let the jars sit in the water bath for another 5 minutes. Lift the jars out of the water, and let cool for 24 hours undisturbed. The jar lids will pop indicating the vacuum seal has formed.

Storage

If the jars are properly sealed, you can store marmalade in a cool, dry place, away from the light for 1 year. After that, the marmalade will still be good, but you will notice the vibrant colour will change and the marmalade will become darker.

Store open jars of marmalade (or jars you have not sealed) in the refrigerator.

Cookbooks on Preserves

If you are interested in simple recipes and techniques for making preserves, like this marmalade, check out Camilla Wynne's books on preserving:

• Preservation Society Home Preserves, covering all forms of preserves from jams and marmalades to pickles and savoury preserves.
• Jam Bakes, which is dedicated to making preserves and baking with them too!

I used both these books to research this recipe and follow Camilla Wynne's methods closely as she taught me how to make Seville orange marmalade years ago. Highly recommend!

How to eat marmalade

Orange marmalade is bittersweet with a very concentrated orange flavour. It is best paired with buttery, rich pastries and also salty foods that will balance out the bitterness of the fruit.

I like to eat marmalade with homemade croissants or this easy brioche recipe. You can also use orange marmalade as a glaze on a pie or tart, like in this orange pie.

Frequently asked questions

📖 Recipe