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Marmalade
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Marmalade is a fruit preserve usually made of citrus fruits. British-style marmalade is sweet marmalade with a bitter tang made from fruit, sugar, water, zest and (in some commercial brands) a gelling agent. American-style marmalade is sweet, not bitter. In English-speaking usage "marmalade" almost always refers to a preserve derived from a citrus fruit, most commonly oranges. The recipe includes sliced or chopped fruit peel, which is simmered in fruit juice and water until soft; indeed marmalade is sometimes described as jam with fruit peel (although many manufacturers now also produce peel-free marmalade).
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Encyclopedia
Marmalade is a fruit preserve usually made of citrus fruits. British-style marmalade is sweet marmalade with a bitter tang made from fruit, sugar, water, zest and (in some commercial brands) a gelling agent. American-style marmalade is sweet, not bitter. In English-speaking usage "marmalade" almost always refers to a preserve derived from a citrus fruit, most commonly oranges. The recipe includes sliced or chopped fruit peel, which is simmered in fruit juice and water until soft; indeed marmalade is sometimes described as jam with fruit peel (although many manufacturers now also produce peel-free marmalade). Marmalade is most often consumed on toasted bread for breakfast. The favoured 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 also be made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, strawberries or a combination.
Origins
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 melimelon or "honey fruit"—for most quinces are too astringent to be used without honey, and in Greek "melon" or "apple" stands for all globular fruits—was transformed into "marmelo." The Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius gives a recipe for preserving whole quinces with their stems and leaves attached in a bath of honey diluted with defrutum: Roman marmalade.
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 languages of continental Europe 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, only citrus products may be sold as "marmalade" in the European Union (with certain exceptions), which has led to considerable complaints from those other countries.
Etymology
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, 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 măy maa de dar
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” which in turn derives from Greek µe??µ???? (melimelon).
According to the history books, in 1524, Henry VIII received a gift of a 'box of marmalade', which was likely to have been the quince sweetmeat. Mary Queen of Scots was one of the earliest fans of marmalade, it seems. It's said that during a bout of seasickness on a sailing from France to Scotland, it was the sugary substance made of quinces by her french chef that she turned to in order to ease her queasiness. Since Mary Queen of Scots preferred language was French, this would explain the name "Marmalade" which could be short for Marie Malade - meaning 'Sick Mary' in French. This may also explain the long association of marmalade with the Scots.
Dundee Marmalade
The Scottish city of Dundee has a long association with marmalade.
In 1797, James Keiller 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. This recipe (probably invented by his mother) was a new twist on the already well-known fruit preserve of quince marmalade.
In popular culture
Paddington Bear, a fictional character in children's books is renowned for his paticular liking for marmalade.
See also
Further reading
External links
- History facts at BBC Cooking
- Sunday Mirror
- The Desert Garden
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