INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 kg of bitter oranges
• 2.3 kg of sugar (you can use a little muscovado sugar to give a touch of caramel flavor)
• 3.5 liters of water

Difficulty: medium

Total time for the preparation of the marmalade: about 2 hours

1. Wash the organic bitter oranges and place them in a pan with 3.5 liters of water.
2. Simmer them until the fruit is tender and the water has reduced by a third (takes about 1.5 hours).
3. We take out the oranges and keep the liquid in the pan.
4. When the bitter oranges are cold, cut them in half and extract the seeds and pulp.
5. Cut the bitter oranges into thin strips, place the organic bitter orange strips and the sugar in the pan together with the liquid over medium heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved. We put the seeds and the pulp in a dish towel, tying the end with string and tying it to the pan handle so that it can float in the liquid during cooking (as in the photo).
6. We bring to the boil until the marmalade reaches the sticking point. Removing the foam that accumulates on top.

How to understand when the jam is ready?

Just put a saucer in the freezer for a few minutes. Then place a little bitter orange marmalade on the cold plate, wait a few minutes, touching the mixture should create a moat and appear a little wrinkled

When it’s ready, remove it from the heat and wait 15 minutes, put the mixture in sterilized jars and let the homemade orange marmalade rest for 2 days. You can make the same recipe with other Sicilian citrus fruits such as grapefruit or lemons.