Topaz wrote:
I have made my annual trip to Stonemanor, the British supermarket
near Brussels, to buy Seville oranges for Marmalade. This year I am
folllowing Alan J. Flavell's recipe (used to be on the University of
Glasgow site; where is it/Alan now?). This link is the recipe but not
the original copy:
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/...html#marmalade

My question is: why, unlike jam, do you add so much water to the
orange juice/peel to make marmalade?

Alan's recipe uses 3 liters water for 1 kg of oranges. Delia Smith
uses 5 liters : 1.35 kg.

I got just over 300 mls juice from 800 grams of oranges; I plan to
add about 2.2 liters of water.

Doesn't this dilute the flavour? I would never do this with
raspberry jam !

One of the differences between the UK-style preserves and "North
American" is a preference in flavors. UK people seem to prefer a more
longer cooked-type flavo/ur (I've read "if we wanted it to taste like
fresh fruit, we'd eat fresh fruit), and non-Anglophile North Americans
like a brighter fresher flavor ("oh, ick, you've cooked the life out of
it.").

You're using UK recipes. Adding so much water and then cooking it down
will achieve the former condition.

B/