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Rhubarb Marmalade
String and cut into very small pieces four stalks of rhubarb. Peel thin half a dozen oranges and cut the rind into thin shreds; free the oranges from all the white pith, cut them into slices, and remove the seeds. Put the rhubard into the pan with the oranges, their peels and one and one-half pounds of coarsely-crushed loaf sugar and stand the pan over a slow fire. Stir the mixture until reduced to the usual consistency of marmalade; then turn it into jars and leave it till the following day. Place in each jar a round of white paper that has been dipped in brandy, cover them with parchment and tie down. This marmalade is delicious, and will keep for quite a long time.
A simple two-fruit preserve that depends entirely on judging the set by eye. The vague quantities and the brandy-paper seal are the two places where modern practice differs.
- Four stalks of rhubarbStalk size varies enormously; aim for about 1 lb (450 g) trimmed weight, which is roughly four large field stalks. Use only the stalks — rhubarb leaves contain enough oxalic acid to be genuinely toxic and are never eaten.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was refined cane sugar sold in cones or cut blocks, crushed at home. Ordinary granulated sugar is the same thing: 1½ lb is about 3⅓ cups.
- A slow fireLow heat until the sugar has fully dissolved and the rhubarb collapses, then raise it to a steady boil. Sugar left undissolved over high heat will crystallise on the pan and can scorch.
- Judging the set"The usual consistency of marmalade" means the setting point, 220°F/105°C at sea level, or a spoonful that wrinkles when pushed on a chilled saucer. Rhubarb is low in pectin and the recipe discards the pith and seeds where most of the orange's pectin sits, so expect a soft, spoonable set rather than a firm one — boiling longer to force a stiff set will darken it.
- The orangesSix ordinary sweet oranges give a mild, sweet marmalade. If you want the bitterness that reads as "marmalade" to most palates now, use Seville oranges in season, or keep two of the six bitter.
- The brandy paper and parchmentA brandy-dipped disc laid on the surface and a tied parchment cover was a common nineteenth-century seal: the spirit was held to discourage surface mould, the parchment kept out dust. Note that this recipe waits until the following day, so the disc goes onto cold, not hot, marmalade. It is not an airtight seal. Fill sterilised jars and process in a boiling-water bath, or simply refrigerate and eat within a month.
- YieldNot stated in the original; expect somewhere in the region of four to six half-pint jars, depending on how far you reduce it.
Marmalade began as quince paste — the Portuguese marmelada, from marmelo, quince — and only became an orange preserve in Britain, where the bitter Seville was worked into the loose, shred-suspended jelly recognised today. Rhubarb was a comparative newcomer to the sweet side of the kitchen: grown in Europe chiefly as a medicinal root until the eighteenth century, it took hold as a dessert crop once cheap sugar made its sourness manageable, and by the 1890s forced rhubarb was among the first fresh things a hotel kitchen could get in late winter. The book in which the recipe appears was compiled in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel.