Not so bitter marmalade!

Asked on 3 Feb 2018 by karenemorley

I make Traditional Seville Marmalade every year with organic Seville oranges from a well known supermarket (according to the website they are always grown by the same farmer in Seville). This year the oranges didn’t look like Sevilles -they were uniformly bigger & the skins were fairly smooth, definitely not ‘knobbly’ like they usually are. I note that Delia says ‘the rougher the skins the better’. Having now made the marmalade, it tastes sweeter than usual & is slightly missing the sharp, tangy edge of a good bitter marmalade. Could this be something to do with the smooth-skinned Seville’s?

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

Hello,

As far as I know all of Waitrose Seville oranges are organic and are still grown a few miles from Andalusia by the Fraga family.

It’s true that we always look out for the larger oranges with the rougher skins but we too find that the appearance of the skin varies from year to year but the lovely bitter taste is consistent. The batch we made this week tastes the same as the marmalade we are still eating that we made last year.

Do you add the juice of a lemon to your marmalade?

Best wishes

Lindsey