Russell Brown’s Michelin Seville Orange Marmalade
Russell Brown is the Chef Proprietor at the Michelin-starred Sienna in Dorset. He would like to share his delicious Seville Orange Marmalade recipe with you.
A few words from Russell:
As many of you will know my time at Sienna comes to an end on April the 25th and a new chapter begins! I have spent more and more time over the last few years doing consultancy, writing, teaching etc and this is now what I will be concentrating on.
My new website is live www.creativeaboutcuisine.com and you can find more recipes, details of my consultancy service, forthcoming events and more on the site. Please sign up for the newsletter to keep in touch.
Ingredients
Makes around 6 large jars
1.1 kg Seville oranges, well washed
2 lemons, well washed
2kg preserving sugar
10g butter
Method
Equipment needed
- Sharp knife
- Chopping board
- Juicer
- Large saucepan
- Muslin square
- Temperature probe or sugar thermometer
- Jug or preserve funnel
- Sterilised jars
Start by halving all the fruit and juicing it, retaining all the pips. Use a teaspoon to scrape the membranes out from the juiced fruit. Cut the skins in half again and slice off some of the white pith if it is really thick. Next slice the skins into strips, choosing whether you want a fine shred or a coarser one. The shreds will swell as they cook to an extent. I added the lemon skins to the mix, although many recipes call for just the juice and thereforeI would have to accept that maybe this means it isn’t a true Seville orange marmalade.
Measure the juice from the fruit and make up the quantity with water to 2 litres. Put the juice and shredded peel into a large saucepan, tie the pips and around a quarter of the membranes in the muslin and add this to the pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the peel is tender, around 1-1½ hours. Remove the muslin bag and squeeze all the juice out into the pan, if you have potato ricer it is brilliant for doing this!
Warming the sugar is recommended in many recipes to aid the dissolving, so I placed the sugar in a roasting tin in the oven set to 100℃ for 10 minutes. I used the oven to sterilise the jars too.
Add the sugar to the pan and stir constantly until it has dissolved, then increase the heat and boil the marmalade rapidly for 5 minutes before starting to check for a set. A thermometer should register 104-105℃ or pour a spoonful onto a chilled saucer, and when the edge of the pool of marmalade is pushed the skin should wrinkle.
Once a set is achieved, pour the marmalade into the sterilised jars and seal accordingly.
I used a mixture of Kilner jars, some with the disposable lid inserts and some of the wire caged ones. Both do the job well as would recycled jars, either with screw lids or wax discs and cellophane tops.
My marmalade was clear and bright, the set is perhaps a little firm so that is something to adjust, maybe taking it to 104℃ not 105. A week down the line the flavour seems to be more harmonious with a good bitter sweet balance. A few people have tried the end result now and feedback is positive! I used some in some chocolates ganache the other day and that was a real winner!
