Strawberry Meyer Lemon Marmalade Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the proportions for marmalade? ›

What's the ratio of sugar to fruit in marmalade? Because of the tartness of a Seville orange, the ratio of sugar to fruit in marmalade is 2:1. This recipe calls for 2kg of sugar and 1kg of oranges but you can scale it down or up using that ratio.

Add the shredded peel and muslin bag to the pan along with the water. Leave to soak overnight. This helps to extract the maximum amount of pectin from the fruit pulp, which will give a better set.

If the proportions of fruit, acid, pectin, water and sugar in your pan are not balanced, the marmalade will be unlikely to set. Nine times out of ten, marmalade fails to set if the recipe does not have a precise weight of ingredients. Listing a number, e.g 4 Grapefruits will mean a variable weight.

Cook it again.

Cooking jam without pectin requires practice and patience. A runny batch happens even to the best home jammers. If, after waiting, you find the jam is still too loose for your liking, empty the jars back into a wide pot and cook again. Wash and sterilize the jars and try again.

“It can vary, but the rule of thumb for marmalade is usually that for every kilo of fruit, you double the water – so if it's one kilo of fruit, you use two of water. And then you use 1.5 times the amount of sugar,” says Armstrong.

Pam Corbin, preserving expert and former owner of Thursday Cottage, marmalade and jam makers: After adding sugar to the oranges, stir the mixture over a gentle heat to ensure it's completely dissolved before it starts to boil. Once it's reached a rolling boil, disturb it as little as possible.

Slice the oranges and cut them in pieces. Weigh the pulp, in order to determine how much sugar you'll have to add while cooking. We suggest 500 gr of brown sugar per kilo of pulp. Of course, you can add more or less sugar, depending on the sweetness degree you prefer for your marmalade.

You simply spoon a little of the peel and cooking liquid onto a frozen plate, then return it to the freezer for 2 minutes. Take the plate out and push your finger through the liquid part. If it “wrinkles” and looks like, well, set jelly, you know the marmalade is ready.

Too often the weights of fruit and sugar are unbalanced, for example listing equal quantities of fruit and sugar. The volume of water is often insufficient to soften the peel before adding the sugar. The type and method used with a muslin bag fails frequently to release enough pectin, crucial when making marmalade.

Stir in the appropriate amount of Certo, and boil as fast as possible for about 5 minutes. Test a small sample on a cold plate (put the plate in the freezer for 10 minutes). A skin should form and start to set. If still not setting, boil again for another 3 minutes and test again.

Why won't my lemon marmalade set? ›

It sounds like you have over boiled it. If you cook it for too long at a high temperature, the natural pectin breaks down and no longer acts as a setting agent and the sugar polymerises into toffee. The way to make any set jam or marmalade is to simmer the fruit gently until it develops your desired level of softness.

There are a few ways to thicken homemade marmalade. One is to cook it longer, which will result in the sugars become more concentrated and the marmalade will become thicker. Another way is to add pectin, which is a natural thickener derived from fruit or vegetables.

You have two choices to fix runny marmalade if it's not setting properly: Live with the runny marmalade and enjoy it despite its flaws: Spread it liberally on toast or better yet, spoon it on vanilla ice cream. Serve it with cake as a sauce.

Pectin Substitute

Cornstarch - Another plant-based thickening agent, cornstarch is a great substitute for pectin. Gelatin - For non-vegan menu items, you can substitute gelatin for pectin, but it will yield a different consistency.

Jane Maggs said that most standard marmalade recipes adopted a rule of thumb by which for every 1lb fruit, 2 pints water and 2lb sugar were required. If half the water boils away then you're left with 1lb fruit and 1 pint water which is matched to 2lb sugar giving approximately a 50:50 ratio.

Marmalade is usually made from citrus fruit like oranges. The process to make marmalade involves the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. Typically, marmalade is clearer in colour, and it has a chunky texture from the pieces of included peel.