Recipe review: Marmalade

[hrj]

Tried out some of the new orange marmalade on fresh hot biscuits for breakfast today. Delicious. Set up very solidly but still spreadable. So the proportions and methods are basically sound, I just need to solve the problem of introducing it into the final containers while still relatively pourable. So definitely cook to puree before adding the sugar and cooking to a gel.

So I'll set aside one container for my own use, one for the cooking competition at Coronet, one to send to the Saluminati meeting at Beltane (since I won't be able to go) and the rest for gifts as it seems good to me. (Maybe donate a few to the Royal Gift Basket collection.) And then try to remember the Lessons Learned next year. Next year maybe I'll try to figure out how to store it in "marmalade boxes".

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The puree versus "chunky" difference seems to be a stylistic difference between different time periods. The esthetic in 16th century cooking (and earlier) tends to prioritize smooth, even, homogeneous mixtures, sometimes with a garnish of a different texture but that would be as a final finishing touch. In contrast, the modern style of marmalade with the contrast between a clear jelly base and the chunks of peel is consistent with modern preferences for variable textures, especially when they mimic what people believe to be "old-fashioned" or "hand-made" products. I'm probably overgeneralizing a bit here, but I think the basic theory is sound.

So, in summary, if I were making a 16th century style of lemon marmalade, I'd go for the puree method, whereas if I were making a modern one, I'd probably go for a more textured result.

I'm ambivalent about whether a 16th century cook would have made an equivalent dish with lemons. There are several sources that give recipes for sugar-preserved citrus that list several varieties of options (e.g., whole fruits in syrup in The Good Housewife's Jewel that suggests oranges, lemons, or citrons; Scappi's candied citrus peel recipe that suggests orange, citron, or lime -- although evidently it may have intended only orange or citron, with the lime coming from an erroneously abbreviated reference to citron). In most English sources of the time, the word marmalade is much more generically equivalent to modern "jam" and can apply not only to the original quince recipe or to an orange version, but also to jam-like versions from apples, cherries, etc.

The peel or whole-fruit preserves that mention several varieties of citrus suggest to me that making substitutions in the citrus-marmalade recipe is also reasonably plausible for the 16th century. And, of course, when I'm not doing strictly historic cooking, then I experiment all over. My whole-kumquat marmalade/preserves were quite successful (but not at all historic).

I appreciate the publication praise whether it's redundant or not! It'll be hard to be patient working through the pre-publication process but it helps to have the sequel to work on.