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Traditional Marmalade Recipes of Scotland

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by: gwydion
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Marmalade is a jam (jelly) made from oranges, traditionally served at breakfast time. The best kind is made from slightly bitter Seville oranges. There are many kinds of traditional marmalades in Britain, but the original is Scottish Dundee Kieller marmalade.

According to the legend Mrs Janet Keiller first made it in Dundee (a major port city at the time) in 1797 when her husband brought a cargo of oranges that were being sold cheaply after a Spanish ship was forced to take refuge in the port during a storm. Needing to use up lots of Seville oranges in one go Mrs Keiller decided to make them into a preserve and Keiller Dundee Marmalade was born.

It's hardly surprising, therefore, that marmalade figures as a major component in many Scottish recipes. Two of these are presented below:

Stilton-stuffed Chicken in Orange Sauce

Ingredients:
4 large chicken thighs, skinned and boned
50g stilton, cut into 4 fingers
juice and freshly-grated zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp cornflour
3 tbsp dry white vermouth
2 tbsp orange marmalade (Dundee Marmalade, for preference)
25g butter

Method:
Insert a finger of cheese into each chicken thigh. Remove the rind from the bacon and use to wrap around the chicken, securing it in place with a cocktail stick.

Add the lemon juice and zest to a bowl. Sprinkle the cornflour over the top and whisk to combine. Add the vermouth and whisk in then stir-in the marmalade and set the mixture aside.

Heat the butter in a pan and when foaming add the chicken and cook, turning frequently, until golden brown all over. Stir the conrflour mix into the pan, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer then cover and cook gently for 20 minutes. Serve immediately on a bed of rice with a little of the sauce spooned on top.

Orange and Marmalade Cake

Ingredients:
240g self-raising flour
2 eggs, beaten
90g caster sugar
120g butter
1 drop vanilla extract
3 tbsp orange marmalade
1 tsp finely-grated orange zest
2 tbsp milk
pinch of salt

Method:
Sift together the flour and salt into a bowl. Cube the butter and add to the flour mixture. Rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs then add the sugar, half the orange zest, the eggs, marmalade, milk and vanilla extract. Depending on the thickness of your marmalade it may be easier to mix if you add the marmalade and milk to a pan and heat gently until the mixture becomes liquid before adding to the flour.

Mix well, until you achieve the consistency of a thick batter then turn this into a well-greased 15—20cm round cake tin. Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for around 70 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre emerges cleanly. (You may need to pace a sheet of cooking foil over the top of the cake about half-way through cooking to prevent it from browning too much.

When done, allow the cake to cool in the tin for about five minutes. Take out of the tin, sprinkle the remaining orange zest over the top then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I hope that these two recipes have piqued your interest in traditional Scottish and British recipes and cookery and that you are now eager to find out more...

About the Author

Dyfed Lloyd Evans is a collector of British Regional Cookery and his site has a collection of several hundred Traditional Scottish Recipes that include recipes for Jams, Marmalades and Preserves, as well as other types of traditional Scottish recipes.

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