[Sca-cooks]Marmalade [was Preserves?]

[Marian Walke]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:

> Marmalade: a sweet spread made from chunks 
> of citrus fruits, including peels, sugar and
> pectin. Should be thick almost to the point of
> jelling.  Although I have heard of quince
> marmalade.

Actually, quince marmalade came first.  This is the period 
marmalade, and the name comes from the Portuguese word for 
quince, marmelo. (Citrus marmalades came later.)  There are older 
forerunners, usually made with honey instead of sugar, from 
pre-Medieval sources, but the quince marmalade seems to be the 
first to get to England.  C. Anne Wilson, in The Book of 
Marmalade (p 17), notes that there is a recipe "for...'drie 
marmalade of peaches' in A.W.'s A Book of Cookrye, 1587, and 
'marmalade of damsons or prunes' in John Partidge's The Treasury 
of Commodius Conceites, 1584.  But at that time, and indeed until 
well into the eighteenth century, the word 'marmalade' used all 
by itself meant only one thing: marmalade of quinces."

A great book, by the way, as is anything by C. Anne Wilson.

--Old Marian