Bitter orange jam (Marmelade d'oranges amères)

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 4 bitter oranges
• 1 lemon(s)
• 1 ½ kg sugar, not gelling sugar
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 1 ½ liters of water

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 10 minutes

Here’s a recipe from the South of France, where bitter oranges are also available in winter. Along with the vin d’orange, they particularly like making marmalade. The amount of bitter oranges depends on their size; if they’re small (about the size of a tangerine), I use five; otherwise, four. Peel the oranges over a bowl, roughly tear the peels, and place them in the bowl. Now comes the somewhat tedious task: removing the seeds from the flesh and collecting them separately on a small plate. Pick out the seeds over the bowl so that the juice is collected in the bowl. Do the same with the lemon. Place the seeds in a tea strainer and seal it with string. Place the peels and flesh of the oranges and lemon, along with some of the water, in a blender and puree. (My blender has a special setting for smoothies, which purees the peels and pulp accordingly finely.) Split open the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Boil the fruit puree together with the remaining water, the seeds of the vanilla pod, the two halves of the vanilla pod and the tea filter with the seeds for about 20 minutes. Then add the sugar and continue to cook the mixture. Especially at the beginning, the whole mixture must be stirred well with a wooden spoon so that the sugar does not settle on the bottom and possibly burn. After another 45 – 50 minutes, the mixture will become relatively transparent, thick and bubbling. You can now remove the tea filter with the seeds. The jam can now be bottled and stored as usual.