I’m not great at cooking, but even I couldn’t screw this recipe up. If you have an orange or two that are past their prime but hasn’t gone moldy yet, this is a perfect way to keep them out of the landfill.
Ingredients (for one 4ish ounce jar of marmalade):
1 orange
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of water
Step 1: Remove and Chop the Orange Peel
Using a vegetable peeler or knife, separate the orange part of the peel from the “pith” (otherwise known as the annoying, bitter white stuff between the peel and the fruit). Chop or slice the orange peel into small pieces or ribbons.
Step 2: Boil the Orange peel
Fill a sauce pan with the orange peel and an inch of water. Bring the water to a boil for 2-4 minutes. Drain the water and repeat 3 times.
Step 3: Remove the Pith
Between boiling and draining, remove the pith from the rest of the orange and set aside.
Step 4: Chop the fruit
Cut the fruit into small pieces. The bigger the pieces, the chunkier your marmalade will be.
Step 5: Simmer everything in a sauce pan
Add the peel, chopped fruit, sugar, and water to the sauce pan and bring to a simmer. For thicker marmalade, add an inch or two of the pith. The pith is bitter but has natural pectin that thickens the marmalade, so add with caution. Stir occasionally. Once the mixture boils down to your desired thickness, remove from heat. Once cool, store in a clean jar. Keep refrigerated unless you’re going to do hardcore canning, which I’ve never done.
Marmalade is all sugar, so it will keep in your refrigerator for a long time. That said, my jar is usually empty by the end of the week. Yum yum!
