The photos on this page is of the variant moro.
More information on blood oranges: Blodappelsin (Danish), Blood orange (English).
Time
2 days. Yes, 2 days. You have to let the sliced oranges marinate overnight.
Equipment
- Pot (minimum 4 litres)
- Potato peeling knife
- Long, sharp knife
- Cutting board (that you don't mind smells of oranges for the next few weeks)
- Ladle
- Jars for the marmelade. This recipe gives 3 - 3.5 litres
A funnel with a wide hole can be useful.
Approach
Day 1 (circa 1 hour)
Use the potato peeling knife to make thin strips of the peel from 3-4 oranges
Cut the strips into thin strips (circa 2-3mm)
Peel the oranges. remove as much as possible of the white stuff. That usually goes well with the first oranges but after 2kg of them it starts getting boring. Don't skimp - the white stuff is what makes the marmelade bitter, so you want as little of it as possible in the marmelade.
Separate the oranges into halves and remove the white stuff from the center.
Slice the oranges (circa 3-6 mm). Don't worry about removing the seeds now.
Put them into the pot together with the peel strips, and add 2-4dl water. They shouldn't be covered by water, but there has to be enough juice and water so most of the slices are kept moist (se why in the footnotes).
Day 2 (4-7 hours)
Put the pot on the stove and get it boiling weakly. You should be able to see the steam.
Reduce oranges&slices by simmering for several hours. How much is difficult to say, but a reduction of 20-40% is common.
The way I do it and know when it is done is by letting it simmer on step 4 (our of 12) on the large plate on my stove. I let it stay there until it starts boiling more heavily and starts making a foam. Then I turn down the heat a little, and leave it until it starts boiling heavily and foaming again. I repeat this 2-3 time
Don't stir too much in the pot (otherwise you might as well just have blended the whole thing)).
Add the sugar and turn up the heat.
When the sugar has been dissolved the seeds will start to float to the top when stirred. Remove them.
Is it reduced enough and have you added sugar enough? You test that by taking half a teaspoon of the mixture, dropping on a plate and letting it cool (eg. in the fridge). When you cut it when a spoon and it doesn't immediately flow together again then marmelade is done.
If the marmelade seems too watery add more sugar.
Reduce the marmelade a bit more until it is done.
When the marmelade is ready, turn off the heat and remove the foam with a spoon.
Add sodium benzoate
Put into jars.
Done!
Footnotes
- Marinate overnight
- The reason for letting it marinate overnight with water is that it reduces the bitterness.
- Orange versus dark red marmelade
- If you make marmelade of "moro" and would like a nice orange-coloured marmelade instead, you can add 1-2 large "navel" oranges and be more generous with the sugar.
- Orange seeds
- The orange seeds contain pectin which makes it easier to get the marmelade to gel. So there is no reason for removing them before putting the slices into the pot. Other recipes call for putting the seeds into tiny cotton bags and letting it boil with the marmelade, but since the seeds float to the top they are easily removed with a spoon.
- Foam
- Removal of the foam has two purposes: 1: The marmelade looks better without the foam; 2: The foam contains impurities and in old days before sodium benzoate could cause the marmelade to get mould.
- Funnel for putting the marmelade into jars
- If you make marmelade more than once then it is worth it to get a funnel with a wide hole. I bought a cheap funnel meant for making filter coffee (the plastic can handle 100+C), and sawed off the bottom..
- Sodium benzoate (E211)
- Is it really necessary? Probably not. The marmelade contains much sugar and little water, and bacteria and mould has difficulties in growing in the marmelade. And the marmelade was 100C when put into jars, so it is unlikely that there will be mould. But I usually make the marmelade for others too, so I always add sodium benzoate.