Food from the World ..... no 2 Lois in Weston .......Marmalade parmalade

The new series exploring food from around the world, with a mix of recipies from friends and the history underpinning their dish, and just what food can tell us about the past.

Some of the earliest of my childhood memories comes from the dark nights of late January when each year, my dad would make marmalade. 

My sister and I would lie in bed in our bedroom at the front of the flat where we lived in Cambridge and the delicious warm smells of Seville oranges and black treacle would drift through... and in the morning there would be a shelf full of gleaming pots of gold, Dad's marmalade. 

Dad would make a special pot of shred free marmalade for my fussy sister who only liked the jelly. The first taste of new marmalade was wonderful, it had a fresh fruity flavour which over the months would develop and mature as the new batch developed and matured in its dark cupboard, darkening and deepening as it aged. 

This marmalade would keep for years... although it didn't; we had it every morning with breakfast and only the occasional pot would still be in the cupboard or on the breakfast table the following January when the new batch was made.

I am sure that my grandma made marmalade too. I’m sure it was a family thing in my Dad's childhood just as it was in mine but I don't think his recipe was from his mother. I think he found the recipe he used in the Daily Telegraph some time in the early 1950’s. 

Over the forty or so years he made marmalade he developed his own recipe, adapting the method rather than changing the product. His method was to boil the Seville oranges whole, then cut them, scoop out the cooked flesh, scrape out the white pith, then slice the skin – but not too thinly. The magic ingredient was black treacle. We called it  Parmalade, because of course, Pa made it!

There would be a difference in the taste in different years because of the differences in the Seville oranges, some more sweet, some more juicy, some with some tiny difference in flavour which changed the marmalade. 

All his marmalade was good but some years were definitely above average. As with all food in our household, the new batch was discussed and debated... flavour, texture, sweetness, bitterness... because bitter is a good thing in marmalade, it has to be tangy and sharp, it is not a jam, it is... marmalade.

Lois is an old friend and author.

Her new novel ​Winterdyke is now available as a paperback and on Kindle! It is #7 in her Thomas Radwinter genealogical mysteries which are now all available as paperbacks and eBooks:

 Location; Weston-super-Mare

Pictures; Marmalade parmalade, 2021 from the collection of Lois Sparshot