How did marmalade get its name?

Question

why isn't it called orange jam

Answer 1

I heard that a hen laid an orange and her chick said "daddy daddy, look what mama laid"

Answer 2

Its my last name I'm Mr. Marmalade

Answer 3

An odd explanation I once read was that Mary, Queen of Scots was ill, and her cook created a concoction to soothe her.  Since she was raised in France, and spoke French, they called it "Marie-malade"  or Mary/ill.  

Answer 4

From the Portuguese "marmelada".

Answer 5

it comes from the french, marmelade, which in turn comes from the portugese marmelada.

Answer 6

dunno probably its a trdition from another country so it has different names

Answer 7

The word comes from the Italian for jam. The closest you can get to marmalade in Switzerland is called 'bitter' orange jam.

Answer 8

Dunno bb. Ask Alan Whitehead!  

Answer 9

Marmalade first appeared in the Oxford Dictionary in 1480 as Marmelade, which was borrowed from the portuguse word marmelade. Romans found that boiling oranges and honey would " set up" , not knowing why or anything about geling. Marmalade started as early civilizations found ways to preserve fruits so they would have stored food.The Romans made variations on making marmalades or dried preserves. Recipes can be traced through history. There are references to marmalades in plays of the time.and was a luxury treat to the elite. Home-made preserves are still a treat and made much the same way today. Depending on the area and time an orange jam was a preserve of Dried fruit or a jam or jelly or fruit preserve, marmalade. Each would be almost the same.

  My Great Grandmother left a cookbook that had hundreds of hand written recipes. There were many on the early canning of what she called dried fruits perserves. These dried fruits were basically sun dried like she had been taught by the early Indians. They would take apples and dry them in the sun until they were sun-dried and could be stored. This was true for cherries, peaches,plumbs and another fruit called a quince. The quince and peaches was sun-dried and then canned with sugar, fruit juice,( made from  a mixture of the fruit and honey), and canned. This mixture was also called Honey fruit.

Basically, Marmalade is cooking fruit that is mixed with sugar, a geling agent or honey and fruit mixture. Early homemakers made their fruit jelly much thicker; closer to a marmalade than a jelly or jam.

I have a recipe book that has all my family recipes that go all the way back to late 1800's. These recipes are all about staples and bread and a whole section on" Making Dried Fruit ", preserve.

  From looking at the recipes some fruits were easy to sun dry and others much harder. My Grandmother has recipes for quince, apple and peach with notations that the fruit of the peach was not sun-dried, " completely". I have made each one the old fashion way, using my Grandmothers recipes and each as been just like the marmalade that is store bought. This preserve , depending on several factors of moisture in the fruit and water, would turn into a preserve that is almost the same as our modern day marmalade.  One thing that stands out about these preserves of dried fruit would be the robust burst of flavor. The peach is intense and the apple is very sharp with full flavor. I know alot has to be with the fruit that was used but because the fruit was dried before using them in the recipes I thnk made the flovor richer . These recipes show the hard work and perseverance that was needed to make it through a long cold winter. I enjoy these recipes and always look forward to having each on old-style, Home-made bread, straight from the oven. I have included several recipes and some history on early marmalades that I have used when making my dried fruit preserves.