Orange Marmalade

As a child, the first cookbook I was gifted was Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story. It was the beginning of my love for foods from around Britain—especially foods served during afternoon tea. Although the book didn’t contain a recipe for orange marmalade specifically, I knew that the fruity condiment could be used as a glaze for traditional scones, cookies and cakes, or spread into non-traditional peanut butter sandwiches.

Although fruit spread and jam recipes can be particular, this orange marmalade recipe is easy. You’ll learn how to make orange marmalade by juicing the fruit, simmering the rinds to extract pectin (which is necessary to make the end product gel) and then blitzing the mixture in a blender—no finicky slicing required. Get your candy thermometer ready!

What’s the difference between orange marmalade and jam?

Jam, jelly and marmalade look and taste very similar, but there are some notable differences in how they’re prepared. Marmalade is made with citrus fruit and utilizes the rind (peel) as well as the pulp and juice. Jam is thick and chunky with mashed bits of fruit and often includes the addition of store-bought pectin instead of pulp from the fruit. Jelly, on the other hand, is thinner, translucent and typically strained to remove any fruit bits.

Ingredients for Orange Marmalade

• Navel oranges: Look for medium-sized oranges that appear to have thin skin without too much pith underneath. Orange pith contains lots of important pectin, but it’s also bitter—so balance is important.
• Lemon: Acidity helps create the wonderful gelled texture of marmalade. Since we’re not using the traditional sour Seville oranges in our recipe, we add a lemon for its sour power.
• Granulated sugar: It’s common to use granulated sugar in marmalade, but if you prefer the taste of brown sugar, it’ll work just fine.

Directions

Step 1: Prep the fruit

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Cut the oranges and lemon in half and squeeze the juices into a bowl. Reserve the juice for later. Place the fruit halves in a medium-sized saucepan and add the water. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and let sit for an hour.

Editor’s Tip: I like to use a citrus press or a reamer to extract the juices to make the task super easy.

Step 2: Finish the marmalade

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Using a blender or food processor, pulse the fruit halves and water until roughly chopped, not smooth.

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Return the citrus to the saucepan, and add the reserved fruit juice and granulated sugar. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally at first and then constantly, until the mixture reaches 220°F on a candy thermometer.

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Pour into squeaky clean, heat-proof glass jars and let cool.

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Orange Marmalade Variations

• Spice up the marmalade: Oranges pair beautifully with warm spices, especially cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and ginger. Add one of them—or all of them—for even richer flavor.
• Try another type of citrus: You can use blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, tangerines or grapefruit (with some of the pith removed) in this orange marmalade recipe. Just make sure that you’re thinking through the size of the fruit and the number you’ll need to roughly equal two large navel oranges and whether you’ll want to add additional sugar and water.
• Get boozy: Stirring whiskey, Scotch or rum into a batch of marmalade while it’s cooling is a great move.

How to Store Orange Marmalade

Pouring the scalding hot marmalade into sterilized heat-proof glass jars keeps the marmalade food-safe. Once it has cooled, pop on the lids and store it in the fridge.

How long does orange marmalade last?

The perishability of marmalade depends on its acidity level and how much sugar it contains. Since we aren’t being super precise or taking pH measurements as we cook, it’s great to err on the side of caution and eat up the refrigerated marmalade within three months, although some sources say that marmalade lasts for up to a year.

If your marmalade is coming up on three months old, put the rest of it to use in our orange marmalade breakfast bake recipe, grilled salmon with Dijon-marmalade glaze or marmalade French toast sandwiches.

Can you freeze orange marmalade?

Jam and marmalade generally freeze nicely, so go for it! I like to put fruit preserves into zip-top freezer-safe bags and squish out the air before popping the bags into cold storage.

Orange Marmalade Tips

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Can you use any oranges for the orange marmalade recipe?

The most traditional marmalade is made with Seville oranges, which are more bitter and sour than your typical grocery store orange. They also have a higher pectin content. However, most grocery stores don’t carry Seville oranges, so we designed our recipe to use sweeter navel oranges. You can also sub in blood oranges.

Can you show how to make orange marmalade less bitter?

Because the pectin that makes marmalade gel comes from the pith, which is also the bitter part of the fruit, it can be tricky to get one without the other. Adding sugar doesn’t make the taste less bitter; it just makes it more bitter-sweet. The easiest solution is to zip the colorful part of the citrus peels off with a peeler and halve the fruit, squeeze the juice and pull out the pulp, giving it a rough chop, and then compost the pith. In that case, you’ll need to use store-bought pectin as a thickening agent.