a brief etymological diversion

[kaberett]

I am currently attempting to Cook Things With Blood Oranges, for reasons, which means that I've gone back through my scrapbook of recipes torn out of magazines, and one of the things I've found is a recipe for "blood orange and cardamom jam".

I wondered a little about this, because by default I'd say "if it's made with citrus then, in English, it's marmalade, not jam", but it wasn't until I was prompted in conversation that I actually went hunting.

(In German, "Marmelade" is the English "jam" and the English "marmalade" is "Orangenmarmelade", lit. "oranges jam", so the distinction this Waitrose Food magazine recipe is making is... harder to express. The reason for this apparent confusion is that it all comes from the Galician-Portuguese "marmelade" i.e. quince paste/membrillo, from the Greek for quince "honey apple". Apparently.)

Which led me, inexorably, to Council Directive 2001/113/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption, and particularly:

‘Marmalade’ is a mixture, brought to a suitable gelled consistency, of water, sugars and one or more of the following products obtained from citrus fruit: pulp, purée, juice, aqueous extracts and peel.

The quantity of citrus fruit used in the manufacture of 1 000 g of finished product must not be less than 200 g of which at least 75 g must be obtained from the endocarp.

... which is to say it's gotta have orange-pulp-from-orange-segments in, but skin is optional. So now I know! At least as far as the EU is concerned.

Comments

[fyreharper]

Marmalade legal definition is that it’s the PEEL that’s optional????????? O_o my vague handwavey concept of “what is marmalade” was basically “citrus peel jam” (or possibly “citrus peel in clear same-citrus jelly”… (jelly in the American sense)) - I would have assumed that what makes it jam instead was having it be made of the insides of the fruit (including pulp)!