Description
A soft refrigerator orange spread with thin peel, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
Yield: Roughly 2–3 cups
Prep: 20–25 minutes
Peel softening: 15–30 minutes as needed
Jam cooking: 35–50 minutes or longer as needed
Total before cooling: About 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 medium oranges
- Thin colored peel from up to 2 oranges, sliced very finely
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup water, plus separate water for softening peel
- 1 teaspoon orange zest, optional
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 whole cloves, preferably enclosed in a spice bag
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- Tiny pinch of salt
Instructions
- Wash oranges. Prepare thin peel strips, avoiding white pith. Peel and chop all the flesh, saving juices and discarding seeds and tough membrane.
- Simmer peel in separate water until tender, checking from 10–15 minutes and allowing longer as needed. Drain.
- Combine fruit, juices, tender peel, sugar, measured water, lemon, spices, salt, and optional zest in a heavy saucepan.
- Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Cook uncovered at a controlled boil or steady simmer for about 35–50 minutes, stirring increasingly often as it thickens.
- Test a cooled sample on a chilled plate. Stop when it forms a soft, slow-moving spread rather than chasing a guaranteed firm gel.
- Remove cinnamon and all cloves. Mash fruit if desired. Fill clean heat-safe containers, cool briefly for handling, cover, and refrigerate promptly.
Storage: Refrigerated only at 40°F or below; plan to use within about 2 weeks as a conservative quality target. Freeze up to 3 months in suitable containers. Not validated for canning or pantry storage.
Estimated nutrition: About 35–55 calories per tablespoon depending mainly on final yield.
Texture note: Peel makes this marmalade-style. Natural pectin varies, so a firm set is not guaranteed. Suggested expansion of the supplied recipe, not kitchen-tested.