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Apple Marmalade
Take the apples to be used after cutting them into quarters and peeling them, and place them in a stewpan with a little water and powdered sugar. Leave them over a slow fire until reduced to a pulp; then still further reduce by simmering until the marmalade clings to the spoon. Cool and serve in a compote-dish or store away in jars to keep. If required for immediate use, sprinkle some sugar over the top and glaze with a hot salamander.
Oscar gives no quantities at all, which is normal for a professional kitchen manual of 1896 — the cook was expected to know the ratio. The one thing to hold onto is the finishing point: reduce until the marmalade clings to the spoon rather than sliding off it, or it will weep in the dish.
- ProportionsA workable starting ratio is 2 lb peeled, quartered apples to 3-4 oz sugar and about 1/4 cup water — enough liquid to keep the fruit from catching before it releases its own. Sweeten again at the end if the fruit is sharp; adding all the sugar early slows the breakdown of the pulp.
- Which applesVarieties that collapse are what this wants: Bramley, McIntosh, Gravenstein. A firm modern eating apple such as Honeycrisp or Fuji will hold its shape and give you a chunky compote rather than a pulp.
- "A slow fire"Low heat, a bare shiver of movement in the pan, with the lid on for the first stage. Once the fruit has fallen apart, take the lid off and raise the heat slightly to drive off the water.
- Judging the finishThe spoon test is reliable: drag a spoon across the pan bottom and the track should stay open for a second or two. Expect 30-45 minutes in total. Stir often near the end — a thick fruit purée scorches quickly and the burnt note carries through the whole batch.
- SalamanderIn this kitchen a salamander was an iron plate on a handle, heated in the fire and held over the sugar to caramelise it. A kitchen blowtorch does the same job; a domestic broiler on its highest setting, with the dish close to the element, is the next best thing. The dish must be flameproof.
- Compote-dishA footed glass or silver bowl. Any shallow serving dish works, but if you intend to glaze the top, choose something that will take direct heat.
- Keeping it"Store away in jars to keep" reflects a period where a sugar-heavy preserve was simply potted and covered. This recipe has no measured sugar and no processing, so treat what you make as a fresh product: refrigerate and use within two weeks, or freeze. For shelf-stable jars, follow a current tested water-bath canning recipe.
- Yield2 lb of apples reduces to roughly 1 1/2 cups of marmalade — four to six servings as a compote, rather less if you are using it to fill a tart or line a charlotte.
Marmalade in this book still carries its older, wider sense: any fruit cooked down with sugar to a smooth paste, from Portuguese marmelada, the quince paste that gave the word its name. The narrowing of "marmalade" to mean citrus preserve is largely a British development, and American cookery of the 1890s was comfortable with apple, apricot or peach marmalade as pastry components. A preparation of this kind would have served as a filling or base for charlottes and tarts as readily as a dish in its own right, and serving it plain in a compote-dish with a glazed sugar top is the simplest possible use for it.