Marmalade is an acquired taste; not everyone is a fan of this bitter-sweet jam.

Seville oranges have hit our shelves this week, so we thought we’d make some marmalade with this bitter, tart orange.

Traditional marmalade recipes require the oranges to stand overnight in a bowl of water with pith, pips and some lemon pips in a cheesecloth bag.

Don’t get us wrong, this is an excellent method, but we were after something a little quicker. It’s not for everyone, but it works.

Make sure you remove all of the pith before bottling the marmalade.

When it comes to the peel, you can take the traditional path, remove it from the orange, cut away all of the pith, and then slice it as thinly as possible.

We opted to use a zester to make the job quicker.

This is a low-yielding recipe and is something you should eat within a week or so.

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Ingredients

6 Seville Oranges
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup water
Juice 1 small lemon
10 springs thyme, plus extra to garnish
1 blood orange, cut into thin slices to decorate

Method

To prepare the oranges, remove the zest, cut away the pith and separate the segments, removing some of the pith between the segments as you go. It’s time-consuming, but don’t worry if you don’t get it all. Once the oranges break down, you can remove the rest with a fork.

Place the segments in a saucepan with the water, lemon, zest and sugar and simmer for about 40 minutes.

Add the thyme leaves and simmer for 15 minutes or until you reach a jammy consistency.

Sterilise 2 – 3 glass jars.

Allow the marmalade to cool a little, then pour it into jars. Place a slice of blood orange in each jar with a few springs of thyme and cover with wax paper or baking paper and secure with an elastic band.

Store in the fridge.