Marmalade

Derived from the Portuguese marmelo, or “quince,” the original marmalade was a firm, jelly-like paste made by boiling pureed cooked quince with sugar until the mixture jelled. This confection is now commonly known as quince paste, quince cheese, or membrillo, from its Spanish name, dulce de membrillo. Invented by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century out of similar quince pastes that had long been extant, marmalade soon came to be made with bitter oranges and other fruits rich in pectin (the colloidal substance that makes possible the acid-sugar bond critical to jelling). In the eighteenth century, as orange marmalade was repurposed as a spread for bread and toast, it came to be made rough-textured and somewhat less stiff.