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Orange appeal: 17 mouth-watering ways with marmalade

<span>Photograph: Tim Gainey/Alamy</span>
Photograph: Tim Gainey/Alamy

We may never know how many surplus jars of marmalade were created during the lockdown year, just for something to do. There is, however, still time for one final push: marmalade – as detailed in this masterclass recipe from Felicity Cloake – is traditionally made with sour Seville oranges, which have a notoriously short season, due to end in just a few weeks’ time.

You don’t have to use Seville oranges, of course. You can make perfectly serviceable marmalade from regular oranges, or even from spent orange rinds, following Tom Hunt’s example. Non-traditional marmalades can also be derived from other fruits, such as pink grapefruit, as Nigel Slater demonstrates.

However, for the purposes of the following recipes, we are looking to use up classic Seville orange marmalade, either shop bought or homemade. With luck, by this time next year you’ll be ready to start making it all over again.

Dan Lepard’s individual marmalade carrot puddings are a delicious and simple place to start. They’re quick to make, needing only 25 minutes in the oven (or, just over a minute in the microwave if cooked in teacups covered in clingfilm). For a large, steamed version of the same idea, try Cloake’s marmalade sponge.

Rachel Roddy’s marmalade cake, a 70s recipe inherited from a neighbour, is a basic pound cake with marmalade in, topped with a marmalade glaze. This winning reader’s recipe for marmalade panna cotta produces a pudding with a sophisticated hint of bay leaf and an (optional) hit of bourbon. Marmalade and whisky bread and butter pudding didn’t quite qualify as a whisky recipe last week (only 1 tsp; not enough), but it does fit in here: it’s effectively a tray of marmalade sandwiches, drowned in cream, eggs and sugar, and then baked.

If you’ve never heard of bostock, prepare to be left unenlightened by a visit to Wikipedia’s less-than-satisfactory bostock disambiguation page. Fortunately, this recipe for rum and marmalade bostock provides an illustrative example of the idea – a pleasing construction project made from stale brioche, frangipane, marmalade and flaked almonds. It seems to be a British version of a classic French breakfast treat, brioche aux amandes, but I cannot discover how it came to be named after a civil parish in Cheshire or a former Cowdenbeath forward. Your guess is as good as – and possibly a lot better than – mine.

The combination of chocolate and orange divides people – some think it’s a natural match, others find it actively off-putting. I am somewhere in the middle: I don’t really start enjoying Jaffa Cakes until I’m on my fourth or fifth, but in the right frame of mind I will persist. You can interrogate this alleged affinity between chocolate and orange further by making your own at home, using good marmalade and Jamie Oliver’s recipe. If you, too, are determined to persist, move on to this chocolate and marmalade tart from Lucy Deedes, author of The Little Book of Marmalade. It is, essentially, one giant Jaffa Cake.

Sticky ... Nigel Slater’s Sichuan marmalade ribs.
Sticky ... Nigel Slater’s Sichuan marmalade ribs. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer

Marmalade can also add a sweet, citrussy note to lots of savoury or quasi-savoury dishes. It makes, for example, the perfect dressing for an orange and fennel salad. Melted along with some Sichuan peppercorns and rice vinegar, it produces a suitably sticky coating for pork ribs. It also works well with root vegetables – here combined with harissa and tossed with carrots and parsnips before roasting.

With Seville orange season and dry January both winding down, we shall finish with a trio of cocktails, all of them designated as breakfast-appropriate. First up is Hawksmoor’s marmalade cocktail, based on a 20s “antifogmatic” (ie, hangover treatment) from the Savoy: gin, lemon juice, orange bitters, marmalade and a splash of Campari. The marmalade mimosa is a slightly lighter option, made with sparkling wine, orange juice, grapefruit juice, marmalade and more Campari. Finally, a potent mix of gin, Grand Marnier, aperitif wine, lemon and marmalade, shaken with ice and christened a breakfast martini. It’s unclear whether this is meant to cure a hangover or give you an especially early one, but it certainly puts the toast in toast and jam.