This easy Orange Marmalade recipe is made using fresh oranges and lemon. It only takes a few simple steps and is absolutely delicious! Enjoy it slathered on toast, pork chops, chicken, or stirred into your yogurt or overnight oats.
Looking for more jams and sauces? Try my Mango Chutney, Pepper Jelly, or Blackberry Jam!
Why this is the best marmalade:
- Versatile – Serve it on grilled pork tenderloin, grilled chicken, stirred in greek yogurt or overnight oats, or simply slathered on toast!
- Delicious – This marmalade tastes so much better than anything you can get in the store. It tastes so fresh and tasty!
- Quick – A lot of recipes are more time consuming with a more complicated process. This marmalade is quick to make and only has a few easy steps!
Four Basic Ingredients:
- Oranges: Preferably choose organic oranges since the skins have not been treated with pesticides and aren’t waxy. Choose thin skinned, oranges for best results, so there's less plith to make the marmalade bitter. Recommended oranges for marmalade: naval, Seville, Cara Cara, blood oranges, mandarin, tangerines, or a combination.
- Lemon: citric acid to help the jam set up and make it safe for canning.
- Sugar: helps preserve the marmalade, balance the flavors, and helps it to set up. You could try using ½ sugar and ½ Splenda/sweetener, but I don’t recommended reducing the sugar unless you are okay with a runnier marmalade, and only if you don’t plant to can/preserve it.
- Water.
Oranges contain so much natural pectin that the marmalade will thicken without any added pectin (unlike with my peach, strawberry or raspberry jam, that all require pectin). Pretty cool!
How to Make Orange Marmalade:
Prepare oranges: Wash oranges and lemon, thoroughly scrubbing the peels. Cut off ends of the oranges then cut each orange in half, and then cut each half into 4, so you're left with 8 pieces of orange. Discard any seeds.
Puree: Place oranges in food processor and pulse until rind is in very small pieces. Meanwhile, place a plate in the freezer, for later use.
Add to saucepan: Add oranges to a saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Zest lemon and squeeze the juice into the pot. Add water and sugar and stir well.
Cook: Bring mixture to a boil. Simmer for 30-35 minutes until thickened.
Test if it's ready: Use the frozen plate to test for doneness. When it's done, it will be a soft gel that moves slightly. If it is still thin and runs easily on the plate, keep cooking.
Pour into jars or containers with a lid. Cool to room temperature then refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.
Canning Instructions: Cook mixture to about 220 degrees F on an instant read thermometer, then pour into sterilized jars, and top with new lids and rings that have been washed in warm soapy water. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes. Allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours, then store in a cool dry place for 6-10 months. Once opened, refrigerate marmalade for up to 2 weeks.
FAQ's:
- What if my marmalade didn't thicken? Stir in a package of liquid fruit pectin and boil for 1 minute.
- Why is my marmalade too thick? It was cooked too long. Return to pot over medium heat and stir in additional water.
- How to avoid bitter aftertaste:? The white plith that lines the orange can cause the marmalade to be bitter but is important in adding a natural pectin. This is why I suggest buying oranges with a thin skin. If your oranges have an overly thick layer of plith, scrape some out before adding to food processor.
Storage and Freezing Instructions:
To Store: This easy marmalade recipe can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
To Freeze: Freeze in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.
Flavor Variations:
- Other Fruits: Combine with other citrus fruits, like grapefruit or pomelo (just make sure the end weight of the fruit is the same)
- Ginger: Add a pinch of freshly chopped ginger root.
- Add Jalapeño, diced.
- Add Cinnamon Stick and a whole clove to the mixture while cooking, then remove.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: add a splash at the end.
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Recipe
Orange Marmalade
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2.0 to 2.3 pounds oranges (about 4 medium)
- 1 lemon , zest and juice of
- 1/3 cup water
- 4 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
- Prep fruit: Wash the oranges and lemon, thoroughly scrubbing the peels.
- Chop: Cut off the ends of the oranges. Cut the oranges in half, then cut each half into 4, so you’re left with 8 pieces of orange. Discard any seeds.
- Puree: Place the orange pieces in a food processor and pulse/chop until the rind is in very small pieces. Place a plate in the freezer, to help us test for doneness later.
- Combine in saucepan: Add oranges to a large saucepan over medium heat. Zest the lemon into the pot and squeeze the juice from it, into the pot. Add water and the sugar and stir well.
- Cook: bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a low boil and simmer, stirring often, for 30-35 minutes until thickened. When done, it will slide off the spoon in sheets, not droplets, and a spoonful poured onto a cold plate should be a soft gel consistency that moves slightly. If after pouring onto a cold plate it’s thin and runs easily on the plate, it is not ready, so continue cooking.
- Pour into jars or containers with a lid. Allow to cool to room temperature, then store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Other Citrus: Combine with other citrus fruits, like grapefruit or pomelo (just make sure the end weight of the fruit is the same.)
- Ginger: Add a pinch of freshly chopped ginger root.
- Add Jalapeño, diced.
- Add Cinnamon Stick and a whole clove to the mixture while cooking, then remove.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: add a splash at the end.
Nutrition
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Holy moly! Super yummy recipe.
I didn’t think it was hard to make, just a bit time consuming, but it was definitely worth it.
Absolutely everyone loves it!! Yayyyy!!
The taste of this is amazing! I did not get the same consistency as you but I cooked the hell out of it and it was at 220 degrees so decided to move forward. It’s not runny but it is not quite jellied either.Yum, Yum, Yum!
OMGoodness this is the BEST! My boyfriend thanks you!
Delicious! Dumb question, do I put the lid on before cooled or after (not canning)?
before cooling
I have 2 questions before making this.
1) What the heck is this “plith” you mentioned several times?
2) Doesn’t all this plith make it bitter?
Pith is the white inner part of the citrus peel. It can be bitter if it is very thick, especially in grapefruit. In my experience, orange marmalade does have some bitterness to it. I’m going to make marmalade in a few weeks, and I think I will use a peeler to get just the outer orange layer of the skin of *some* of the oranges, discarding the pith just to be safe.
I am about to make your marmalade but really thought you should correct your spelling from plith to pith.
The middle layer of the pericarp is the mesocarp, which in citrus fruits consists of the white, spongy “albedo”, or “pith”.
(What does plith mean?
plith m (uncountable) midst, middle)
Great marmelade recipe.
I liked this because it was very simple and tasted well, but I feel like it could be better
Made this as directed. Yummy! Has anyone cooked it in the microwave?
I needed orange marmalade for a recipe, so I followed her directions but used one 5.2 oz. naval orange, which made 2/3 cup of pulp so I added 2/3 cup of sugar. Add 1 tablespoon of water, 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon zest, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon zest. I cooked it in our microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time. The marmalade will bubble up, so cook it in glass container more than 4 times larger than your ingredients and keep any eye on it. Between the cooking intervals, I stirred it. I cooked it a total of 4 or 5 minutes, until it iwas close to the right consistency. The marmalade will thicken as it cooks. So delicious. I don’t know if this will work for canning marmalade, but it was great for what I needed.
I just made this for the first time. When I was cutting up my oranges, one of them was no good and I didn’t want to go to the store. So I weighed my bad orange and then substituted the same amount in orang juice. The recipe still turned out great. Thank you.
This is absolutely delicious and so easy! We will definitely be saving this recipe in our favourites!