Gelatin Free Orange Marmalade
Bright, bittersweet, and deeply aromatic, this classic citrus preserve captures everything you love about a great marmalade — glossy, jewel-toned, and packed with tender strips of orange and lemon peel. Many store-bought jams and jellies quietly rely on gelatin as a setting agent, which makes finding a truly clean preserve trickier than it should be. This recipe skips all of that entirely, using only fruit, water, and sugar to achieve a beautiful, firm set the old-fashioned way. The secret is the cheesecloth bundle: by collecting the seeds, pith, and pulp and simmering them alongside the peel, you coax out the fruit's natural pectin, which does all the work a gelatin packet would otherwise do. A candy thermometer and the classic frozen-plate wrinkle test take the guesswork out of knowing when you've hit that perfect set point. The result is a pantry staple you can feel genuinely good about — spreadable, complex, and made entirely from ingredients you can see and name. Slather it on toast, swirl it into yogurt, or tuck a jar into a gift basket and watch it disappear fast.
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Learn more →Ingredients
48 servings
- 2 lbs navel or seville oranges (about 4 medium), scrubbed
- 2 lemons, scrubbed
- 8 cups water
- 6 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
- 1
Halve all the oranges and lemons. Squeeze the juice from each half into a large heavy-bottomed pot (at least 8-quart), catching the seeds and any loose pulp in a fine-mesh strainer set over the pot. Transfer the seeds and strained pulp to a double layer of cheesecloth; set the squeezed halves aside.
- 2
Using a spoon, scrape the white pith and any remaining pulp from the inside of each squeezed orange and lemon half and add it to the cheesecloth bundle — this pith is rich in natural pectin and is essential for the set. Tie the cheesecloth into a secure bundle with kitchen twine, leaving a long tail to tie to the pot handle.
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