(A Portuguese Receipt.)
Rasp very slightly on a fine and delicately clean grater the rinds of some sound Seville oranges; cut them into quarters, and separate the flesh from the rinds; then with the small end of a tea, or egg-spoon, clear it entirely from the pips, and from the loose inner skin and film. Put the rinds into a large quantity of cold water, and change it when they have boiled about twenty minutes. As soon as they are perfectly tender lift them out, and drain them on a sieve; slice them thin, and add eight ounces of them to each pound of the pulp and juice, with a pound and a half of highly-refined sugar in fine powder; boil the marmalade quickly for half an hour, skim it well, and turn it into the jars. The preserve thus made will not have a very powerful flavour of the orange rind. When more of this is liked, either leave a portion of the fruit unrasped, or mix with the preserve some of the zest which has been grated off, allowing for it its weight of sugar. Or proceed thus: allow to a dozen Seville oranges two fine juicy lemons, and the weight of the whole in sifted sugar, of excellent quality. With a sharp knife cut through the rinds just deep enough to allow them to be stripped off in quarters with the end of a spoon, and throw them for a night into plenty of cold spring-water; on the following morning boil them sufficiently tender to allow the head of a pin to pierce them easily; then drain them well, let them cool, and scrape out the white part of the rind, and cut the remainder into thin chips. In the mean time have the pulp of the fruit quite cleared from the pips and film; put it with the chips into a preserving-pan, heat them slowly, boil them for ten minutes, draw the pan from the fire, and stir gradually in, and dissolve the remainder of the sugar, and boil the preserve more quickly for twenty minutes, or until it thickens and appears ready to jelly. This mode, though it gives a little additional trouble, will prevent the orange-chips from becoming hard, which they will sometimes be if much sugar be added to them at first. The sugar first broken into large lumps, is sometimes made into a very thick syrup, with so much water only as will just dissolve it; the pulp and juice are in that case boiled in it quickly for ten minutes before the chips are added; and a part of these are pounded and stirred into the preserve with the others. March is the proper month for making this preserve, the Seville oranges being then in perfection. For lemon marmalade proceed exactly in the same manner as for this.
Rinds of Seville oranges, lightly rasped and boiled tender, 2 lbs.; pulp and juice, 4 lbs.; sugar, 6 lbs.: 1/2 hour. Or, weight of oranges, first taken in sugar, and added, with all the rinds, to the pulp after the whole has been properly prepared.
GENUINE SCOTCH MARMALADE.
“Take some bitter oranges, and double their weight of sugar; cut the rind of the fruit into quarters and peel it off, and if the marmalade be not wanted very thick, take off some of the spongy white skin inside the rind. Cut the chips as thin as possible, and about half an inch long, and divide the pulp into small bits, removing carefully the seeds, which may be steeped in part of the water that is to make the marmalade, and which must be in the proportion of a quart to a pound of fruit. Put the chips and pulp into a deep earthen dish, and pour the water boiling over them; let them remain for twelve or fourteen hours, and then turn the whole into the preserving-pan, and boil it until the chips are perfectly tender. When they are so, add by degrees the sugar (which should be previously pounded), and boil it until it jellies. The water in which the seeds have been steeped, and which must be taken from the quantity apportioned to the whole of the preserve, should be poured into a hair-sieve, and the seeds well worked in it with the back of a spoon; a strong clear jelly will be obtained by this means, which must be washed off them by pouring their own liquor through the sieve in small portions over them. This must be added to the fruit when it is first set on the fire.”
Oranges, 3 lbs.; water, 3 quarts; sugar, 6 lbs.
Obs.—This receipt, which we have not tried ourselves, is guaranteed as an excellent one by the Scottish lady from whom it was procured.
CLEAR ORANGE MARMALADE.
(Author’s Receipt.)
This, especially for persons in delicate health, is far more wholesome than the marmalade which contains chips of the orange-rinds. The fruit must be prepared in the same manner, and the pulp very carefully cleared from the pips and skin. The rinds taken off in quarters (after having been washed and wiped quite clean from the black soil which is sometimes found on them), must be boiled extremely tender in a large quantity of water, into which they may be thrown when it boils. They should be well drained upon a large hair sieve reversed, so soon as the head of a pin will pierce them easily; and the white skin and fibres should be scraped entirely from them while they are still warm. They should then be pounded to a paste, and well blended with the pulp and juice, these being added to them by degrees, that they may not remain in lumps. A quarter of a pint of water, in which the seeds have been immersed for an hour or two, well worked up with them, and then passed through a net strainer[[169]] or coarse sieve, will soften the flavour of the marmalade, and assist its jellying at the same time. Boil it rather quickly without sugar for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, then finish it by the directions for “Orange Marmalade, Portuguese Receipt,” of the preceding page, but regulate the proportion of sugar and the time of boiling as follows:—