A spoonful of amber orange marmalade on a chilled white saucer, its surface wrinkling under a fingertip, a wide pot of glossy marmalade with suspended strips of peel behind it

Marmalade: The Recipe to Learn First

September 26, 2026

Marmalade is oranges, a lemon, water and sugar. It needs no boxed pectin. Citrus carries its own pectin, concentrated in the white pith and the seeds, and making marmalade is the work of pulling that pectin out and setting it around strips of peel. This recipe teaches the two moves every other marmalade depends on. The peel cooks in water until it is completely tender before the sugar goes in, because sugar will not soften it afterward. Then the pot boils to a set point, and the set point is a temperature that depends on the elevation of the stove.

The proportions here are the tested ones for classic orange marmalade published by the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia. What this page adds is the altitude step. At sea level the set point is 220°F. In Denver it is about 210°F, and a cook who chases 220°F up here overshoots the set by about ten degrees and ends up with a stiff, overcooked marmalade.

For how marmalade differs from jam, preserves and fruit butter, see Jam, Preserves, Marmalade and Fruit Butter. The history and the styles of marmalade are in Marmalade: The Complete Guide.

Ingredients, for 7 to 8 half-pint jars

4 cups (950 ml) thinly sliced orange peel, white pith left on, from about 2.5 to 3 lb (1.1 to 1.4 kg) oranges
4 cups (950 ml) orange pulp, seeds and membrane removed, cut up
1 cup (240 ml) thinly sliced lemon, seeds removed, from about 1 large lemon
6 cups (1.4 L) water
6 cups (1.2 kg) granulated sugar
Optional: the seeds from the oranges and lemon, tied in a square of cheesecloth

Which oranges. Marmalade is the most popular use for Seville oranges, Citrus aurantium. They are too bitter to eat out of hand, their peel is prized for its fragrance, and their seeds and pith are high in pectin. Navel or Valencia oranges make a sweeter, milder marmalade by the same method and are much easier to find. Measure the peel and pulp by the cup either way, because the cup measures are what the recipe was tested on.

Before you start: find your set point

Marmalade sets when the boiling syrup reaches 8°F above the temperature at which water boils. At sea level that is 212°F plus 8, or 220°F. The boiling point drops about 2°F for every thousand feet of elevation. Water boils at about 202°F in Denver, which puts the set point near 210°F. The most reliable number is the one from your own stove and thermometer, because it also corrects for a thermometer that reads a degree or two off.

Bring a small pot of water to a hard boil, hold the thermometer upright with the bulb fully submerged and clear of the bottom, and read it at eye level. Add 8. Write that number on a piece of tape by the stove. For the full altitude picture, see Cooking at Altitude.

Elevation	Water boils at	Marmalade sets at
Sea level	212°F	220°F
2,000 ft	208°F	216°F
4,000 ft	204°F	212°F
5,000 ft	202°F	211°F
Denver	about 201 to 202°F	about 210°F
6,000 ft	200 to 201°F	about 209°F
8,000 ft	197°F	about 205°F

Method

Set up. Wash and sterilize eight half-pint jars and keep them hot. Put two small saucers in the freezer for the set test. Take your boiling-water reading and write down the set point.
Cut the fruit. Scrub the oranges and lemon. Peel the oranges and keep the white pith on the peel, because that is where most of the pectin is. Slice the peel into strips 1/8 inch wide and measure 4 cups. Pull the seeds and membrane from the pulp, cut the pulp up and measure 4 cups. Slice the lemon 1/8 inch thick, seed it, cut the slices in halves or quarters and measure 1 cup. If using the seed bag, tie all the seeds in cheesecloth.
Cook the peel tender. Put the peel, pulp, lemon, seed bag and water in a 10-quart pot. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat until the peel is completely tender, about an hour. Pinch a strip; it should give with no resistance at all. If it is still chewy now, it will still be chewy in the jar. Squeeze the seed bag against the side of the pot with a spoon and discard it.
Add the sugar, then boil hard. Add the sugar and bring the pot slowly back to a boil, stirring until every crystal dissolves. Then turn the heat up and boil rapidly, stirring now and then, about 45 minutes. The bubbles turn smaller and glossier as the syrup darkens from pale gold toward amber. Watch the thermometer, not the clock.
Test the set. When the thermometer reaches your number, take the pot off the heat. Spoon a little onto a frozen saucer, put it back in the freezer for a few minutes, and push it with a fingertip. If the surface wrinkles and the line stays where your finger left it, the marmalade is set. If it runs back together, boil two or three minutes more and test again.
Fill. Skim the foam. Stir the pot gently for a minute so the peel spreads through the syrup instead of floating. Ladle into the hot jars with 1/4 inch of headspace, wipe the rims clean and put on the lids.
Process. Process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes at up to 1,000 feet, 10 minutes from 1,001 to 6,000 feet (which covers Denver), or 15 minutes above 6,000 feet. Leave the jars undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours, then check that every lid has sealed. Any jar that did not seal goes in the fridge and gets eaten first.

Why it went wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Runny, never set	The syrup stopped short of the set point, or the thermometer reads low	Recheck the thermometer in boiling water. Empty the jars back into the pot, return it to the set point, confirm with the saucer test, then refill into clean hot jars with new lids and process again
Stiff and dark, overcooked	Cooked to the sea-level 220°F at altitude, so the syrup concentrated past the set	Use your own boiling point plus 8°F. In Denver that is about 210°F
Tough, chewy peel	The peel went into sugar before it was tender	Cook the peel in the water until it is fully soft before any sugar goes in; this cannot be fixed after
Too bitter	Thick pith on the peel	Keep the pith but pare the thickest of it away next time, or use navel oranges instead of Seville
Weeping liquid in the jar, set too firm	Too much acid	Keep to one lemon for this batch and resist adding extra juice
Peel all floating at the top	Jarred while the syrup was at its thinnest	Stir off the heat for a minute before filling so the syrup begins to thicken and holds the peel

What marmalade is for

Toast is the obvious use and a good one: cold butter, then marmalade, thick enough that the peel shows. The bitterness is what takes marmalade further than jam. Next to a sharp cheddar or an aged sheep's cheese it does the job of a fruit paste, with an edge. Thinned with a little of the pan juices, it glazes a roast chicken or a pork loin in the last twenty minutes. A spoonful whisked into a mustard vinaigrette gives a salad of bitter winter greens something to push against.

Notes and variations

Halving. The recipe halves cleanly into a 6-quart pot. The boil to the set point runs a little shorter, so watch the thermometer. Doubling it in one pot is not recommended; make two batches instead.

Lemon or mixed citrus. The same method works with grapefruit and lemon peel. Lemon marmalade is sharper and paler, and Brins Lemon Saffron Marmalade (shop Brins Lemon Saffron Marmalade) shows where the idea goes with saffron. Yuzu. A small handful of yuzu peel in place of some of the lemon brings the floral note described in Yuzu: The Complete Guide.

Buying it instead. Shop Confiture Parisienne Lady Marmelade.

Beside the toast, the Alain Milliat late-harvest orange juice from Sicily (shop Alain Milliat late-harvest orange juice from Sicily) puts orange on the breakfast table in another form.