Freezing Seville oranges?

[slimpersoninside]

I planned to make some Seville orange marmalade this year (never tried it before). Unfortunately due to circumstances at the moment I don't have the time. Can I freeze the oranges, whole preferably, but I could find the time to do some prep - juice and shred the peel then freeze.

What do you think would be best or should I just forget it this year?

Thanks.

[scullion]

i've prepped and frozen them before now - when i realised i didn't have enough jars to cope with the amount of oranges i'd bought. it worked fine.

[Herbidacious]

Thomasina Miers also says you can - not that Scully's word needs back up. (I plan to make her 5 sugar marmalade this weekend, so was looking at her recipe.)

I wish I had room in my freezer for oranges!

[Pepper Pig]

Just chuck then in the freezer whole. They'll be fine. I've made marmalade in September before now.

[Oat]

Sounds good to me Pepper Pig

[suffolk]

I’m sure I’ve heard of folk throwing bags of Seville oranges in their freezer and making the marmalade months later.

[slimpersoninside]

Thanks folks.

I'll see if we come accross some tomorrow.

I don't eat marmalade but hubby does and I really fancy giving it a go.

[Herbidacious]

I've not found any in the shops. Had to order them from Ocado. Should be coming in about 90 mins...

[Suelle]

Waitrose have them in abundance - they are 'reduced to clear' in my local store as they're not moving.

[Herbidacious]

Damn. I could have got more, but I am carless this weekend (I think.)

[slimpersoninside]

Waitrose have them in abundance - they are 'reduced to clear' in my local store as they're not moving.

Hope they have them in my local one tomorrow, RTC would be an added bonus .

[Herbidacious]

The ones that arrived are not very orange coloured

[Seatallan]

Herbi, they generally aren't. Sometimes they're quite greenish. It's the way they should be so don't worry (I'm a bit of a marmalade addict and haunt the local shops waiting for the Seville oranges to come in from Boxing Day onwards so I've seen a fair old few! )

As for freezing them- should be fine (whether whole or prepped). Have done it myself.

[Herbidacious]

I was hoping someeone would tell me that! Thank you!

Do they make marmalade in Seville, I wonder?

[slimpersoninside]

Do they make marmalade in Seville, I wonder?

If so the question should then be do they call it orange marmalade? .

[Herbidacious]

I bet Seville smells nice in the spring when the orange blossom is out. I've only been once, years ago, in summer.

[Herbidacious]

I bet we get the duff (not very orange) ones exported to us in the UK...

[Herbidacious]

https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search

Might need translating

[Herbidacious]

Is there a marmalade recipe thread? I am getting nervous now about which one to do.

[KC2]

Is there a marmalade recipe thread? I am getting nervous now about which one to do.

Ian's recipe is brilliant and has been used by lots of us! https://edition.independent.co.uk/editi ... index.html

You don't need to faff around with pith and pips etc in muslin. There's a helpful illustration of the wrinkle test/ setting point as well on his website https://souvigne.pagesperso-orange.fr/r ... isc100.htm

And yes, there's definitely at least one marmalade thread on here - probably several!

Good luck!

Since we've given up toast and marmalade for breakfast I haven't made it for a few years. We have muesli, fruit and kefir/ yogurt now as OH said that having sugary jammy spreads at breakfast meant that he had a sugar craving again mid-morning!

[Herbidacious]

Thanks. The wrinkle test is my downfall. I know how to do it, what it's supposed to look like, yet still overcooked my marmalade last year, and jam last time I made it. It didn't seem to wrinkle. I was hoping to rely partly on a thermometer tomorrow.

I don't eat breakfast atl all, but my first batch of marmalade was so delicious... it lasted us over a year, although I only made 4 or 5 jars. I am very happy to have bread and jam in the evening from time to time. I could eat some right now. If all goes well, tomorrow... Will I jinx it if I got and get some nice bread tomorrow?!

[MariaKK]

by Herbidacious » January 11th, 2020, 12:33 pm

Do they make marmalade in Seville, I wonder?

Yes, though it's mostly for export and tourists though it's relatively recent. Apart from Convents the best known is La Vieja Fábrica in Morón de la Frontera - some 60 km southeast of the city though still in the province of Sevilla. Did a google - apparently Ocado & Morrison´s sell their marmalade.

These days most of the oranges sold in the UK come from bitter orange groves in Andalusia but also Sicily etc - too many cars in the city. I used to make lots when I lived in Madrid as OH worked in Atlantic Andalusia and would bring back several kilos - picked on the outskirts of Seville or a friend's family orange grove in Sanlucar de Barrameda - the only place I remember seeing them for sale. Locals only bought one or two for cooking.

[Herbidacious]

I am slightly stuck at the first hurdle. I am using Thomasina Miers recipe in which she used 3kg of oragnes. I am gonig to use 1kg. She says halve the fruit then add 3 litres of water and bring to boil.

Do I use a third of the water as I am using a third of the fruit?!

(I am thinking, no.)

[Herbidacious]

I think as I have 2kg will make a Delia one first with 1kg. This is with some regret as I wanted to make a dark treacly one.

However if anyone has a link to Ian in France's recipe that would be good. (KC2 your link went to an Independant article.)

edit: got it

[MariaKK]

Here goes / marmalade

http://souvigne.com/recipes/misc190.htm

All Ian-s recipes>
http://souvigne.com/recipes/index.htm

[Herbidacious]

Yes, I found it in the end. Thanks, though!

It's a whole orange version, and I had already halved the oranges...

Might make something like this with my other bag They should keep till next weekend (I hope.)

I am currently sort of using the Felicity Cloake recipe with an eye on the River Cottage book recipe. Main difference is that the latter says to soak the shredded peel for 12-24 hours. Can't do 24 as have to go to work tomorrow. 12 is pushing it. So will just leave for a few hours.
First two oranges (shells) took at dismaying amount of time to shred, but thankfully my knife skills seemed to speed up exponentially. It was a bit painful on the thumb in the end, though. I thnk I injured the joint a few days ago carrying compost from the front of house into th back garden.
I could do with a sharper knife, but would have cut myself for sure.

[Seatallan]

Main difference is that the latter says to soak the shredded peel for 12-24 hours. Can't do 24 as have to go to work tomorrow. 12 is pushing it. So will just leave for a few hours.

Top tip: I soften my peel in the microwave for a few minutes (approximately 3-4 minutes on full power) before getting everything on to simmer. Gets rid of any need to soak the peel.

Second top tip: If you have time, put the oranges in the sugar in a bowl overnight before making your marmalade (I add a few cloves, a cinnamon stick, some star anise and a vanilla pod too- sometimes I add other things such as root ginger). Just adds a depth of flavour to the finished marmalade (especially if you put the spices/vanilla pod in muslin bag with the rest of the pith, etc).

[KC2]

However if anyone has a link to Ian in France's recipe that would be good. (KC2 your link went to an Independant article.)

edit: got it

(Oops, sorry Yes indeed, I had copied that link for a friend who was interested in the stories about the Dominic Cummings ad for misfits and weirdos to work at Downing St and obviously didn't click on Ian's recipe link firmly enough!)

Glad you got it in the end but sorry you couldn't use Ian's recipe this time. As far as I can see there's no short cut to the hand shredding of the oranges and it does take ages. When I do Ian's recipe I use disposable gloves as I found the acid from the citrus really attacked my hands. I also use scissors - as the peel is cooked it's soft enough to cut with kitchen scissors.

Hope it tastes great

[Herbidacious]

Well I have another kilo and maybe this first batch won't work anyway, so I can benefit from all your kind advice/recipe with the next batch. I do remember the whole orange method being horribly messy, but think perhaps the deeply flavoured nature of my successful (4 sugar) batch two years ago may also have been something to do with it been made by this method.

River Cottage book says to simmer the peel with the juice etc fro two hours in a covered pan. Decided to dimsiss this as unnecessary (as no lid or even frying pan that big) but then the liquid content seemed to be going down too fast. And then I remembered my wok lid (Not used for at least a decade, but remarkably I could find it. Three is method in my messyness.)

So... wrinkle test. Felicity says put the saucer with marmalade back in the freezer for a minute. I've not seen this before. I have my thermometer though too.

I am going to use a few different sugars, I think.

I am tempted to leave it all over night after boiling, but that's lazyness. I should crack on after the peel is cooked. I now need to find the stepladders to enable me to get the jars down from the top of the kitchen units.

[slimpersoninside]

My first Seville orange marmalade was made today.......it's shredless .

I followed Delia's recipe. After 2 and a half hours the peel shreds appeared to be soft but they obviously weren't. We ended up passing the marmalade through a sieve to get the slightly tough peel out. It's not the best looking preserve I've ever made, it's a bit cloudy, but it tastes lovely (even to me, a non marmalade eater). Hubby's looking forward to some on his toast tomorrow.

I know better for next year's batch, mind you we might prefer the shredless!

[Herbidacious]

It will be fine without shreds, I am sure!

Mine tastes good too, but last time I looked it was a bit on the liquid side. Hoping it will be less so when cool. I was worried that there wasn't enough liquid after boiling the pith and added some as one web site suggested. It made more than I expected, too

I may be asking for advice on here tomorrow.

[Herbidacious]

Hmmm.

https://www.cocoaandheart.co.uk/blog/re ... alade.html

I took it off the heat at 104 as Felicity suggested. Wrinkle test - well still not sure what it's supposed to look like.

[Herbidacious]

It seems to have set over night. Phew! Can't wait to try!

[KC2]

It seems to have set over night. Phew! Can't wait to try!

. Great!

[Seatallan]

Well done Herbi!!

[Herbidacious]

Thanks. I have yet to try it yet. Bread and marmalade for dessert tonight!