Making Orange Marmalade

Video + Recipe

I have a love-hate relationship with making jams. We’ve had our house here in Umbria for over 35 years now, and over the past three decades I have made enough jars of jam to see us through several lifetimes. Here are a few things I have learned over the years on my personal jam journey:

I don’t love jam. I don’t hate it. But if you told me I had to give it up forever I’d be totally ok with that. So this is not one of those breathy posts about the beauty of glistening, jewel-like preserves.

I do love a good crostata though. And that almost always involves jam. But usually not my own homemade jam since my favourite recipes tend to use jam made with fruit we don’t grow ourselves, like apricot or raspberry. The fruit we do grow (when our trees decide to cooperate) tends to be less exciting in the jam department. Apples for instance, or figs. I love fresh figs, but find fig jam cloyingly sweet.

Domenico, on the other hand, says he loves jam. Says he loves it in the morning, on toasted bread. At least that’s the scenario that plays in his head as he opens a jar on a Sunday, and then completely forgets about it until I find it in the back of the fridge months later, covered in mold and ready to be tossed. It’s a cycle that we have gotten really good at.

Lately, though, our jam-making has entered a new and–IMHO–much more delicious phase. A couple of bitter orange trees we planted a decade ago have finally started producing fruit. So last year, I decided to try to make orange marmalade, which I usually love. It was a LOT of work. The result? Not terrible, but not great. We over cooked it, the peel turned tough, and the whole batch had a slightly caramelized flavour. Not the bright citrusy kick I was hoping for.

This year, I’m very happy to report that, thanks to the miracle of social media, I discovered a much, much easier way to make orange marmalade. The boiling of the fruit ahead of time made all the difference. And it turned out perfectly!!! I’ve already made one batch with a kilo of oranges we picked this week and am planning on making at least two more batches.