Marmalade

History

Simmons prints marmalade twice, and the two entries do not describe the same thing. Among the preserves, 'To make Marmalade' is a quince paste: two pounds of quinces cooked with three quarters of a pound of sugar and a pint of spring water until tender, then bruised, returned to the liquor, boiled three quarters of an hour, and put into pots or saucers. Among the tarts, 'Marmalade' names no fruit at all; the marmalade is simply laid into paste No. 1, her lightest puff paste, and baked gently, a filling assumed to be already made rather than a recipe in itself.

That the preserve is quince is not incidental but the word's oldest meaning. Marmalade entered English in the 1530s as a preserve or confection of pulpy consistence made from quince, by way of French marmelade and Portuguese marmelada, 'quince jelly,' from marmelo, 'quince'; historically the confection was made from quince, and only in the seventeenth century was the word extended to any preserve made from a citrus fruit. Simmons's quince paste is marmalade in that first, original sense.

What the tart entry withholds is the fruit. Simmons does not say whether its marmalade is her own quince paste, an imported one, or, by 1796 when the citrus sense was long established, an orange or lemon preserve; nor does she record where the filling came from or why she set it in her most delicate crust. The archive keeps her method for the quince and her silence for the tart.

Ingredients

• marmalade
• puff paste

Instructions

1. Lay marmalade into paste No. 1 (the delicate puff paste).
2. Bake gently.