Marmalade

Hello there. I am very fond of jams (not the traffic type but the sweet ones), and among my favourites is the blackcurrant jam from South Africa. I am also partial to strawberry and apple jams.  Before 2014 goes away, I bring your attention to something I noticed on the breakfast table this morning.   A “Three Fruit Marmalade” which, by the way, I found to be very delectable. Out of curiosity, I examined the bottle and label, and discovered that it contained three citrus fruits, grapefruit, oranges and lemon.  

This particular three fruit marmalade from England got me puzzled a bit, as I have always thought that marmalade was made from oranges. Maybe this was because, where I grew up, we had only the orange marmalade all the time. Dundee from Scotland produces a very well known orange marmalade since 1797.

A check with some of the best known English dictionaries revealed that marmalade is made from mainly orange but other citrus fruits are also used.

The Concise Oxford  Dictionary, “ a preserve of citrus fruits, usually, bitter oranges, made like jam”.

Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. “a sweet food  made from cooked fruits such as oranges or lemons that is usually spread onto bread and eaten at breakfast.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, ”a jam made from fruit such as oranges, lemons or grapefruit, usually eaten at breakfast.”

I like this one from Cassell’s English Dictionary, “a jam or preserve prepared from fruit, especially oranges or lemons, boiled with the sliced rind.”

Lastly, one from the Webster’s  Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, “  a jellylike preserve in which  small pieces of fruit and fruit rind, as of oranges, lemons, etc., are suspended.”

There you are, the next time you go to the supermarket, look for the ‘Three Fruit’ type. Or the other citrus fruits beside orange. 

For a detailed write up on marmalades  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmalade  would be a good start. It does give an indication as to why some of us in the British Commonwealth countries take it for granted that marmalade is made from orange only. The famous marmalade from Dundee Scotland is made from orange.

Footnote:  A Marmalade cat is a cat with orange fur. The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines it as a cat with fur which is dark orange with small strips of yellow or brown. It is not strange therefore that marmalade is associated with orange only.