Blood Orange Marmalade With Gin

This delicious blood orange marmalade is a wonderful sweet tangy addition to your toast in the morning and the added Gin is a great wee kick to get you going.

What’s to love about this recipe

• If you are a marmalade lover then this blood orange marmalade will get your taste buds tingling.
• You can use this blood orange marmalade as a glaze for roasting carrots, chicken, pork or duck.
• My blood orange jam is super easy to make and it’s a great way to use delicious blood oranges during their short season.

I’ve made lots of marmalade here on larder love, from my whisky and ginger marmalade to more unusual ones like my Christmas pudding marmalade and orange pomegranate and mint marmalade.

Marmalade on toast is my favourite way to start the day.

What are blood oranges?

Blood oranges, or red/blush oranges are oranges where the flesh inside is tinded anything from blush like pink to vibrant red.

This distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of polyphenol pigments common to many flowers and fruit, but uncommon in citrus fruits. Chrysanthemum is the main compound found in blood oranges.

Another name for blood oranges is raspberry oranges because they do have a hint of the taste of raspberries about them.

When are blood oranges in season?

You can buy red oranges between February and March here in the UK. They are such a treat I like to use them in as many ways as possible, from making gin to this delicious blood orange marmalade recipe. Of course I just like to eat them too!

Ingredients for blood orange marmalade

Blood/red oranges – I used 6 oranges and that weighed in at 1 kilo of fruit.

Sugar – plain old granulated white sugar for this blood orange marmalade recipe. If you use a brown sugar you would get a real carmelised taste and that would overpower the delicate almost raspberry flavour of the blood oranges.

Spice – I have used ground cardamom as it is a light spice from the Middle East that has an almost perfume-like flavour. This pairs really well with the blood oranges in this delicious marmalade recipe.

Lemon juice – freshly squeezed lemon juice. This will help your blood orange jam to set and adds an extra zing to the flavour.

Gin – now this is of course purely optional but I just love adding booze to my preserves and gin goes so well in this blood orange preserve. Don’t use a fancy flavoured gin here, just a simple gin will do.

I love using gin in my preserves, my Gin & Tonic Lemon marmalade is a real favourite.

How to make blood orange jam

First things first, you will want to scrub your blood oranges in hot soapy water then rinse and pat dry to remove any preservative wax coating on them.

Now grate the zest off three of the red oranges and cook this in a little water for about 15 minutes till it has softened completely.

Use an old fashioned box grater to get nice chunks of peel for your red orange jam.

Peel the red oranges and chop the flesh avoiding the bitter pith.

Cook the blood orange flesh along with the sugar, cardamom and lemon juice for about 30 minutes.

Use a stick blender to smooth out your blood orange jam and then add the cooked and drained orange zest thus turning it into a red orange marmalade!

Cook for a further 5 minutes then finally add the gin for that extra lift of flavour to this gorgeous blood orange marmalade.

Ladle the spiced marmalade into sterilised jars and you’re done.

How much marmalade does this make?

I got approximately 1 kilo of blood orange marmalade from this recipe. That’s 2 x 500g jars or 4 smaller jars. It all depends on the size of the jars you are using.

How long will this last?

My blood orange preserve will keep for up to a year in a nice cool cupboard. Once opened store your marmalade in the fridge and use up within a month.

Can you waterbath this?

Yes, you can waterbath can this red orange jam. Simply waterbath using your usual method for 10 minutes.

How to use blood orange marmalade

This spiced orange jam is just perfect on your toast in the morning just like any other marmalade.

However it has other uses too and makes a terrific glaze for roasting carrots. That orange and gin flavour is a brilliant partnership with sweet juicy carrots.

Use blood orange marmalade as a glaze for roasting chicken, duck or pork. Just spread some on top of the meat before you pop it in the oven and you’ll get a lovely citrusy flavour.

Add some red orange jam to Asian dishes for some extra sweet and sour fruity flavour.

You can thin the blood orange marmalade a little with water and use it as a dessert topping too. This is terrific on top of a really nice quality vanilla ice cream.

Serve some blood orange marmalade with a cheeseboard.

Looking for more delicious marmalade recipes to try? Then check these out before you go;

Christmas pudding marmalade

Orange, pomegranate and mint marmalade

Carrot and orange marmalade

Red pepper marmalade

Gin & tonic lemon marmalade

Whisky and ginger marmalade

There are even more great marmalade recipes in my Jelly & Marmalade section.

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.