SC - RE: Marmalade

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

Lord Stefan li Rous in a private sending kindly brought me
 up to date on recent discussions of this subject. He wrote:

> snip
>Thank you for mentioning this book. Although I have several
>other of C. Anne Wilson's books, and have been quite
>happy with them, I had not heard of this book.

>While we have discussed marmalades here before, I don't
>remember any mention of them being this early or using
>honey instead of sugar so this is interesting.

C.Anne Wilson has an extensive and exhaustive study 
of marmalade in her book.  Indeed  the full title is
THE BOOK OF MARMALADE: Its Antecedents, Its 
History and Its Role in the World Today.  Actually, the 
Condoignac and Chardequynce I mentioned are not
technically marmalade as we know it today, but are among
its antecedents.  Indeed they descended from the 'cidonitum'
of Palladius circa 4th c..  In medieval parley, Greek 
"melomeli" had become "malomellus" (Isidore of Seville, c.570
- -636 AD) a term both for the fruit quince and for the conserve.
The modern Portugese for the fruit is still "marmelo".

Ms. Wilson in her extensive history brings up the reasons why
the soft fruits other than quinces and citris did not show up as
marmalades in period.  In a nutshell, because quinces must
be cooked to be edible, early on being boiled in honey, the 
huge store of pectin was released to make marmalade or what
the Brits call "jams".  It was not until Tudor times that other
fruits were boiled with pectin rich fruits in combination to 
make other fruit marmalades.  Of course, by then, sugar had
largely replaced honey as the sweetener of choice.  Ms.
Wilson, as an adjunct to the marmalade history,  perforce had
to include a very nice brief discourse on sugar and its Arabic 
connections.

John Partidge, in his "The Treasures of Commodiious Conceites 
and Hidden Secrets" c.1584, states "This wise you may make
marmalade of wardens, pears, apple and medlars, services,
checkers or strawberries, every one by himself, or mix it together,
as you think good."

I personally have only tried out the recipes for Condoignac,
Chardequynce and Palladius' cidonitum'.  The results were 
incredibly well received, with many sampling and commenting
how insipid modern marmalades are by comparison.  Some
gentles ventured to say I could make a great deal of money
preparing these recipies commercially.  But boy, Howdie, would
these be costly, I estimate $12 or more for a pint jar!  

Going back to John Partidge's book, he mentions a fair number
of period fruits that are difficult to obtain today.  Among them, he 
mentions medlars, services and wardens.  Well, in a few years they
may not be so difficult to obtain and we can try out some of these
recipes.  Part of the orchard program of the Glaedenfeld Centre
includes planting a minimum of 25 each of these and other rare
European fruits.  I have grown medlars before in my period 
Elizabethean garden in which I grew them and about 600 other
period plant varieties.  Unfortunately. the single tree nerver produced
enough fruit at once to experiment with them in marmalades rather
being eaten just to taste ordinary medlars.   Another fruit I will be
growing in quanity is the Kornel or cornellian cherry, a dogwood 
species.  Regretably, we will have to wait close to a decade until
plantings achieve maturity and allow sufficient harvests to 
experience these tastes.

At any rate, C. Anne Wilson's book is first rate imo. Her references
and bibliography are scholarly and, best of all, her historic recipes
are all translated from well documented Greek, Latin and French
sources.  I have not been sufficiently familiar with this list to 
know what kind of information formating you all normally share.
So if I am tantalizing you all by not quoting the actual recipes, you
must let me know.  Incidentally, I do hope that the OOP banter 
about "lime jello molds" and "watergate salad" are Thanksgiving
lapses into mundane cookery.  It would be most disappointing
if such modern banality intrudes regularly into what should be
a period discourse.

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"



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