marmalade

Seville orange marmalade

Marmalade is a fruit preserve, made from orange or other citrus fruit, sugar, and water. Some recipes include some amount of peel and zest, which imparts a sharp, bitter taste from the bitter citrus oil.

Scottish marmalade is made from oranges and contains more peel and zest than most other marmalades. Central European and California-style marmalade contains less peel and zest and so are less bitter.

In languages other than English, marmalade can mean preserves made with fruit other than citrus.^[1]. The recipe includes sliced or chopped fruit peel simmered in fruit juice and water until soft; indeed marmalade is sometimes described as jam with fruit peel (although manufacturers also produce peel-free marmalade). Marmalade is often eaten on toast for breakfast.

The traditional citrus fruit for marmalade production in the UK is the "Seville orange", Citrus aurantium var. aurantium, thus called because it was originally imported from Seville in Spain; it is higher in pectin than sweet oranges, and therefore gives a good set. Marmalade can be made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, oranges or any combination thereof.

Origins

Marmalade jars

Antique marmalade cutter

The Romans learned from the Greeks that quinces slowly cooked with honey would "set" when cool (though they did not know about fruit pectin). Greek melimēlon or "honey fruit"—for most quinces are too astringent to be used without honey, and in Greek mēlon or "apple" stands for all globular fruits—was transformed into "marmelo." A Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius gives a recipe for preserving whole quinces, stems and leaves attached, in a bath of honey diluted with defrutum—Roman marmalade. Preserves of quince and lemon appear—along with rose, apple, plum and pear—in the Book of ceremonies of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetes, "a book that is not only a treatise on the etiquette of imperial banquetting in the ninth century, but a catalogue of the foods available and dishes made from them."^[2]

Medieval quince preserves, which went by the French name cotignac, produced in a clear version and a fruit pulp version, began to lose their medieval seasoning of spices in the 16th century. In the 17th century La Varenne provided recipes for both thick and clear cotignac.^[3]

The extension of "marmalade" in the English language to refer to citrus fruits was made in the 17th century, when citrus first began to be plentiful enough in England for the usage to become common.

In some continental Europe languages, a word sharing a root with "marmalade" refers to all gelled fruit conserves, and those derived from citrus fruits merit no special word of their own. Due to British influence, however, only citrus products may be sold as "marmalade" in the European Union (with certain exceptions), which has led to considerable complaints from those countries.

In Portugal, where the modern use of the word originated, "marmalada" refers only to a solid gel-like substance made of quinces. Any other other use of the word is considered improper both linguistically and technically.

Etymology

Marmalade spread on a sea biscuit

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "marmalade" appeared in English language in 1480, borrowed from French marmelade which, in turn, came from the Portuguese marmelada. According to José Pedro Machado’s Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa^[4], the oldest known document where this Portuguese word is to be found is Gil Vicente’s play Comédia de Rubena, written in 1521:

Temos tanta marmelada

Que minha mãe vai me dar um pouco^[5]

In Portuguese, according to the root of the word, which is marmelo, "quince", marmelada is a preserve made from quinces, quince cheese. Marmelo in turn derives from Latin melimelum, “honey apple”^[6] Marie turn derives from Greek μελίμηλον (melímēlon)^[7].

In 1524, Henry VIII received a "box of marmalade" from Mr. Hull of Exeter^[8]. As it was in a box, this was likely to have been membrillo, a quince paste from Portugal , still made and sold in southern Europe. Its Portuguese origins from marmalado can be detected in the remarks in letters to Lord Lisle, from William Grett, 12 May 1534, "I have sent to your lordship a box of marmaladoo, and another unto my good lady your wife" and from Richard Lee, 14 December 1536, "He most heartily thanketh her Ladyship for her marmalado".^[9]

Dundee Marmalade

The Scottish city of Dundee^[10] has a long association with marmalade^[11].

In 1797^[12], James Keiller^[13] and his mother Janet ran a small sweet and preserves shop in the Seagate section of Dundee; they opened a factory to produce "Dundee Marmalade", that is marmalade containing thick chunks of Seville orange rind^[14]. This recipe (probably invented by his mother) was a new twist on the already well-known fruit preserve of quince marmalade.^[15]

See also

• Succade
• Fruit preserves
• Zest

Further reading

• Allen, Brigid (1989). Cooper's Oxford: A history of Frank Cooper Limited. 
• Mathew, W. M.. Keiller's Of Dundee: The Rise of the Marmalade Dynasty 1800-1879. 
• Mathew, W. M.. The Secret History of Guernsey Marmalade. 
• Wilson, C. Anne (1985). The Book of Marmalade: its antecedents, its history and its rôle in the world today together with a collection of recipes for marmalades & marmalade cookery. Constable. ISBN 0094656703. 

Notes

External links

• Making the most of marmalade - History facts at BBC Cooking
• Marmalade? No ..it's orange jam - Sunday Mirror