Looking for How to Make Orange Marmalade! EASY, illustrated step-by-step instructions in 2022? Scroll down this page and follow the links. And if you bring home some fruit or vegetables and want to can, freeze, make jam, salsa or pickles, see this page for simple, reliable, illustrated canning, freezing or preserving directions. There are plenty of other related resources, click on the resources dropdown above. If you are having a hard time finding canning lids, I've used these, and they're a great price & ship in 2 days.
If you have questions or feedback, please let me know! There are affiliate links on this page. Read our disclosure policy to learn more.
Click here for a PDF print version
Making and canning your own orange marmalade is also quite easy. Here's how to do it, in easy steps and completely illustrated. If your looking for a jam recipe and directions, click here! We also have directions to make applesauce, apple butter, pickles and others!
This example shows you how to make orange marmalade. The yield from this recipe is about 18 eight-ounce jars (which is the same as 9 pints). I'll explain both the way to make traditional orange marmalade (which in my opinion has a bitter edge to it) and an orange marmalade without the bitterness.
If you are lucky enough to live in Florida or southern California you can go pick your own Oranges in January and February! Otherwise, you'll have to go to the grocery store for the oranges and lemons.
Pick fresh oranges and lemons that are not soft, moldy or discolored.
I'm sure you can figure out how to wash the fruit in plain cold water.
Need lids, rings and replacement jars?
Get them all here, delivered direct to your home, at the best prices on the internet!
The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle; you don't really have to sanitize the jars - the boiling water bath sanitizes everything, jar, lid, contents and all; but you DO want to get the jars as clean as you can first. I get the dishwasher going while I'm preparing everything else, so the jars are clean and hot (and less likely to crack when you put boiling hot fruit in them) by the time I'm ready to fill the jars.
Lids: Put the lids into a pan of hot water for at least several minutes; to soften up the gummed surface and clean the lids.
Take a look at Step 10 - if you are going to use method 10a, then with a vegetable peeler, remove only the colored part of the peel and set it aside. This outer portion of the peel is what give marmalade its bitter taste. If you like it, chop it finely and set it aside for now.
If you don't like the bitterness, then you are going to use the method Step 10b, so just then just peel the fruit with your hands as shown in step 5 (and skip step 4)
Using your fingers, peel off the remaining white portion of the rind, discard this - it is a tasteless and spongy
Cut the fruit in half, across the segments, as shown.
The tough, white part in the center must be cut out. But it does contain lots of natural pectin, so you can take a pair of scissors; just snip it out and cook it in cheesecloth with the fruit to extract the pectin..
Save any juice that leaks
out!
Next, slice the two halves into thin slices
And then chop the slices up a bit! Remove and discard any seeds or tough parts of the orange that you find in the process.
Continue to save any juice that leaks out!
You'll need to follow the directions that come with the pectin, but generally, the lower sugar pectin recipes call for about 4 cups of sugar per box, and the regular pectin calls for 7 cups of sugar.
Mix the dry pectin
with about 1/4 cup of sugar and Keep this separate from
the rest of the sugar. If you are not using sugar, you'll just have
to stir more vigorously to prevent the pectin from clumping.
Note: you can also add some spice at this point, if you like!
Some people add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ginger or cloves.
Purists add none of these!
Stir the pectin into the chopped fruit. Put the mix in a big pot and
set aside for a moment.
Notes about pectin: For marmalade (which is difficult to get to set) I usually add about 50% - 100% more pectin (just open another pack and add a little) or else the jam is runnier than I like. With a little practice, you'll find out exactly how much pectin to get the thickness you like.
Another tip: use the low sugar pectin. It cuts the amount of sugar you need from 7 cups per batch to 4 cups! And it tastes even better! On the other hand; I have never had success with the No-sugar pectin. It always turned out runny and bland. You might want to try using the low sugar recipe with a mixture of sugar and Stevia (in a prepared form like Truvia, it measures same as sugar; if you use another form, you'll need do your own conversion) - or Splenda, if you prefer, ; that could work.
Is your jam too runny? Pectin enables you to turn out perfectly set
jam every time. Made from natural apples, there are also
low-sugar pectins that allow you to reduce the sugar you add
by almost half!
Get canning jars, rings, lids and pectin deliverd:
Peels add the characteristic bitterness to marmalade, but some people do not like marmalade BECAUSE it is bitter - so here are both ways to make it (do one OR the other):
If you want the characteristic bitter taste of marmalade, put the peels, use 2 cups of the original 4 cups of water or orange juice (for a richer flavor) and 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda in a saucepan.
Bring the mix to a boil. Cover it, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the chopped
fruit, the remaining 2 cups of juice and simmer for 10 minutes more.
If you want a less bitter taste, skip the preceding and instead place the chopped fruit and 4 cups of water or orange juice in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes
Add the sugar and bring the mixture back to a full boil.
Stir the mix and bring it to a full boil, hard, for one minute.
Fill them to within 1/4-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put the filled jars into the canner!
This is where the jar tongs come in really handy!
Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. Boil them for at 15 minutes.
Note: Some people don't even boil the jars; they just ladle it hot into
hot jars, put the lids and rings on and invert them, but putting the jars in
the boiling water bath REALLY helps to reduce spoilage! To me, it makes
little sense to put all the working into making the jam and then not to
process the jars to be sure they don't spoil!
Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.
It may take up to two weeks for the marmalade to set and thicken up. It will be runny until then!
Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last about 18 months. After that, the get darker in color and start to get runny. They still seem safe to eat, but the flavor is bland. So eat them in the first 12 to 18 months after you prepare them!
|
|
Other Equipment:From left to right:
|
![]() You can get all of the tools in a kit here:
|
Home Canning KitsThis is the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to
make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and
spaghetti sauce. This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts
for years: the canner, jar rack, jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a
plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, and the bible of canning, the Ball
Blue Book. It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. You'll
never need anything else except jars & lids (and the jars are reusable)!
There is also a simple kit with just the canner and rack, and a pressure
canner, if you want to do vegetables (other than tomatoes). To see more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!
|
Canning booksCanning & Preserving for Dummies
|
|||||||
The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes PaperbackThis is THE book on canning! My grandmother used this book when I was a child. It tells you in simple instructions how to can almost anything; complete with recipes for jam, jellies, pickles, sauces, canning vegetables, meats, etc. If it can be canned, this book likely tells you how! Click on the link below for more information and / or to buy (no obligation to buy)
Click here for more information about the |
Summary - Cost of Making Homemade Marmalade - makes 10 jars of 8 oz each* |
||||
Item | Quantity | Cost in 2022 | Source | Subtotal |
Oranges | 8 medium or large sized | $2.00 | Grocery store | $2.00 |
Lemons | 2 | $1.00 | Grocery Store | $1.00 |
Canning jars (8 oz size), includes lids and rings | 10 jars | $/dozen 8 oz jars | Grocery stores (Publix, Kroger, Safeway, etc.) | $5.50 |
Sugar | 4 cups | $2.00 | Grocery stores (Publix, Kroger, Safeway, etc.) | $2.00 |
Pectin (low sugar, dry) | 1 and a third boxes | $2.00 per box | Grocery stores (Publix, Kroger, Safeway, etc.) | $2.70 |
Total | $13.20 total or about $1.32 per jar |
|||
* - This assumes you already have the pots, pans, ladles, and reusable equipment. Note that you can reuse the jars! Many products are sold in jars that will take the lids and rings for canning. For example, Classico Spaghetti sauce is in quart sized jars that work with Ball and Kerr lids and rings. Note that the Classico's manufacturer does not recommend reuse of their jars: see what they have to say on this page: |
If you want to learn how NOT to make marmalade, read this entertaining account from this Australian woman who is either incredibly cheap or a slow learner... but either way, it's a funny story!
And if our recipe is too EASY for you and you would like a much more complicated approach that will take about 4 hours to complete, try Delia Smith's (a cook who is famous in the UK) orange marmalade recipe!
Don't forget about us
in the Spring for pick your own strawberries, vegetables oand other
fruit! See our companion websites,
www.pickyourownchristmastree.org for choose and cut Christmas tree
farms and
PumpkinPatchesAndMore.org to find a corn
maze, hay ride and more in October! Remember to ALWAYS call the farm or orchard BEFORE you go - weather, heavy picking and business conditions can always affect their hours and crops! All images and text © Copyright © Benivia, LLC 2004
- 2018
Disclaimer |
Above is the
2020 version of
the Ball Blue Book