This week I decided to follow a recipe by the incredible David Lebovitz. I have never gone wrong with a David Lebovitz recipe. He is one of my favourite food bloggers, and all the recipes I have tried from his website have been delicious. He has a fantastic writing style, which makes you feel as though you get to know the “real” him. Which I love. I changed a few things, adjusted the quantities, and the timing of some steps, but otherwise it’s the same recipe. A few things about this recipe: It took me about 1.5 hours for my jam to set, which is considerably longer than the usual 40 minutes that most jams take. I think this must have something to do with my stove as previous jams have also taken a long time to set. Make sure you finely slice your oranges in this recipe. It makes for a nicer textured jam. It sure does take awhile to slice and dice the oranges, but it’s definitely well worth it – some of the best jam I have had. And if you make the jam around dessert time, I noticed that it would make a fantastic syrup on top of ice cream. For David Lebovitz’s recipe click here. For my very minimally adjusted recipe, see below.
Level of Difficulty: 2/5
Preparation Time: about 1 hour (dicing oranges takes awhile)
Cooking Time: about 2 hours (total, over 2 days)
Makes about 4-5 jars of jam
ingredients
6 Seville oranges
1 orange
10 cups (2.5 liters) water
pinch of salt
1/2 a vanilla bean
8 cups (1.6 kg) sugar
1 tsp brandy
recipe
1. Wash and dry the oranges. Slice all oranges in half (around their equator). Squeeze and strain the juice out of the oranges.
2. Gather the seeds (there will be a lot) and place them in a cheese cloth. Also gather any pulp and put it into the same cheese cloth. Then scoop out the pulp from the inside of each orange half and add to the cheese cloth. Tie the cheese cloth tightly, to form a ball. You may need to make two balls The pulp and seeds are important because the pectin they release are what help the jam reach setting point.
3. Dice the oranges into very small thin slices, not more than 1 cm long. They must be slivers.
4. In a large pot, add the orange juices, the muslin seed pouch(es), water, salt, vanilla bean and orange rind. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Boil for about 20 to 30 minutes until the orange pieces become translucent. Take off heat and leave for 24 hours. The muslin seed pouch(es) will release more pectin, which is good for the jam.
5. Add the sugar to the mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then bring to a rolling boil. Stir the mixture to avoid it sticking to the bottom. After 25 minutes, remove the vanilla bean and muslin seed pouch(es).
6. Continue to boil the mixture until the jam reaches setting point. Start testing the jam after about 40 minutes. It took me about 1 hour to reach setting point. You can test the jam to see if it has set by putting a small drop on a plate that has been chilled in the freezer. Return the plate with the drop of jam back to the freezer for 1 minute. After 1 minutes, remove the plate and look at the jam – if it does not stick to your finger when you touch it and has created a little film on top, then the jam has reached setting point.
7. At this stage, stir in the brandy to the jam. Let the jam cool for ten minutes, and then pour into jam containers. Close the jam containers while still hot and place in the fridge after 5 hours.
