Seville Savvy

I have written records of our marmalade making adventures going back to 2002. I must have made it before then because when, we lived in England 1983-1990 a lorra jam was made from a lorra different sorts of fruit. What couldn't be boiled up with sugar and sealed [jam] was warmed up with sugar and yeast and bottled [plonk some mildly radio-active]. But around 2002, I got alongside a canny method for fool-proofing marmalade. This involves separating 

• process "pectin release" [simmer oranges for 3 hours in enough water to cover] from 
• process "combine pectin, acid and sugar to make jam that sets" [bring orange gloop (less seeds and pith) PLUS 2x as much sugar PLUS coarse chopped skins to a roiling boiling and keep it there for 10-15 minutes].

Looking back on my early marmalade notes shows that we've made considerable changes to the protocol mostly in the line of simplify simplify.[that would be Thoreau]. Now we've got the right kit and the lived experience and the notes to reliably knock off a year's supply of marmalade from nothing more than oranges, sugar, water and time [maybe seven hours elapsed time from a standing start, of which half is actually working]. The other solid is that we have a reliable "3 generation" team: BobTheSeville, Dau.II and the latter's odd-mother who have known and liked each other for 30 years.

We haven't made marmalade since Jan 2023. Our Seville supplier from 2 years ago has retired and I had to scrabble for another. Top-tip: make sure your dentist and your fruiterer are much younger than you are. Shout out for Bolger's Fariview of Waterford: serving the SouthEast retail and wholesale for 75 years!  Although it was late in the marmalade season, Bolger's sourced me a 12kg flat of Sevilles, to be collected on the morrow, for €25. The next Saturday, Lá Fhéile Bríde, I was alone in the house and started on processing 24/93rds of the oranges as a first batch . . . to see if I still had the touch. 7 hours later, result! [L] showing that I could still do it. Note also ◎ the latest bit of kit - a 2kg quartz boulder to keep the wafer-thin lid down on the stainless steel saucepan in which I now do the 1st 3-hour boil. Seville oranges float, hot Sevilles positively bob and the pan is Full. A weighted lid really minimizes water-loss and a steamy kitchen. Cast iron 7.5lt Cousance? so yesterday! And so damnably heavy.

Cost: it is remarkable how well oranges have held their value over the last 20 years: between 2005 and 2015 a crate of Sevilles cost €20±€2. Now it's about €25±€2. Sugar otoh has gone vertical: up 50% from 2021 to 2023. For this batch 

• Materials. Sugar €6.80, oranges €6.45, water €0.00. 
• Labour: 1 hour prep. 2 hours process. 3 x €MinWage = €38.10 
• Total €51.35 or €2.85 per jar
• cf: Fruitfield Old Time Irish Coarse Cut Marmalade 454G €3.29 
• If you ignore labour it’s €0.80 a jar
• cf: cheapest Stockwell & Co Orange Marmalade 454G €0.49

Team Seville assembled on Lá Fhéile Blaise the Monday following Lá Fhéile Bríde which has been a public holiday since 2023. I sprang out of bed at 06:30 so that Process Pectin for Batch II 2025 could start at 07:00 and the hard work could start after breakfast at 10:00. As soon as the the Pectin Process Pan PPP was empty, I started off batch III for after lunch.

By the time we'd enjarred Batch III we were all kinda knackered: but were revived by tea, toast and . . . marmalade. Over the weekend we created 18 + 18 + 23 [some kinda a small - we ran out of jam-jars] pots which should see us through the year. We still have [rotate your stock!] 5 pots of vintage 2023 to eat first. 

I froze the last 20 oranges after first scrubbing them down with a 4:1 solution of white vinegar against the surface fungi.