Marmalade: once a staple of every breakfast table in Britain, apparently now isn't so popular. Sticky rivals honey and jam are overtaking traditional marmalade in terms of sales.

Do you think this reflects our changing tastes? Are we so used to sweeter foods, that tangy marmalade will eventually die out with the generation that once bought it?

Diana Henry is launching a campaign to bring back marmalade by entering her own recipe in the national marmalade competition. We want to know if you still buy it, if you make your own, and what we can do to put it back on the nations' menu?

Nora

I don't use Marmalade all the time, so when I buy one it is normally a "special" one. Sweet, rich, thick cut, and with a addition of alcohol!

So I tend to buy when I see a special one or around Christmas time. Then again, I very rarely buy jam.

I don't make my own, my Mother does, but only from the Seville concentrate stuff, which I don't really consider to be the same at all. (only my opinion)

Maybe it is the demise of the Sunday Breakfast? At one time we would have juice, then eggs, bacon, tomatoes etc, then buttered toast and marmalade washed down with lots of coffee.

In latter years we had the toast WITH the eggs, bacon and tomatoes and there was no room for more afterwards with marmalade.

Another reason could be that years ago marmalade kept for ages in the larder. How many people have a cool larder these days and unless your fridge is big enough to keep loads of jars in, (jams, marmalade, pickles, chutneys, salad dressings and on and on) then we are told to use them all up within a very short space of time. If you end up throwing away three quarters of a jar of any preserve, you are going the think twice before you buy another one. Aren't you?

I organise the artisan food side of the Marmalade Festival, right now jars of marmalade are flooding in throught the post, if the response we get to the competition is anything to go by, Marmalade is alive and kicking. Sales might be dropping but maybe people are making their own.

If you are in the Lake District on February the 10th come to the festival (www.MarmaladeFestival.com), as well as the Marmalade competition, we have 24 artisan producers, with over 50 things to taste, each with a citrus theme. Come and say hello to us, we have a stand, we run Cumbria's on-line food magazine (www.Artisan-food.com) - Martin

I am surprised. My husband would not eat toast in the morning without marmade on it. He likes the medium cut variety breakfast marmalades with lots of fruit. I like it topping my bread and butter pudding. It gives a really good glaze, ask Gary Rhodes.
Julie

Adore marmalade, use it in cooking loads. Steamed puddings, bread and butter pudding, sauce for pancakes, pork, duck, chicken, savoury sauces.

Tangy seville marmalade on hot granary toast
Maple syrup on toasted crumpets
Delicious!

Definitely homemade here from Seville oranges any day now and the same each year.

Homemade can be personalised - we like it thick cut, my Mum likes no rind (so she gets pure marmalade jelly) - everyone's taste catered for.

Long live homemade marmalade - far too many traditional skills are dying out.

I have tried the marmalade that was on tonights programme - the 100% Fruit one by Streamline. It is not like the old fashioned ones and tastes really nice. My dad used to have marmamlade ever morning and although I dont have it every day, I do prefer thjis one as it doesnt taste as strong as some of the old ones. Keep marmalade going - it is so nice to have something refreshing on the plate for breakfast - not just chocolate bars!!! Vive la orange!!!!

Have just made the 2008 batch. 6lb of Seville Oranges, 4 lemons, 12lb sugar, 12 pints of water. Standard process. Lovely result which will last till next year, if I am lucky.

What surprises me is that when friends and relatives know I have made a batch, they beg for some and when consumed say things like 'that was lovely, much better than shop brought'. When I ask why they don't make some, I get the excuses which range from no time, through too much work to don't eat enough to make it worthwhile.

How do we get more people to make marmalade? Maybe we should teach them how to make bread and then get them to try home made marmalade on the toasted result?

David

But if everybody made it you wouldn't get the pleasure out of giving it that you do

You are right Old Thatch, I do enjoy giving pleasure with food. It is why I cook. That and a desire to be 'in charge'! Control freak me? Probably yes, but only in the kitchen, I think, I hope!

Also, I was trying to answer the question posed by Nora R in the original post.

Happy Cooking

David

No offence meant at all David.
I think you have just described most passionate cooks.
I gave some '07 chutney and jam recently as a visiting gift and, indeed, it was very pleasurable. I have put my seville oranges in the freezer (first time I have ever tried this) as I am not up to making the marmalade yet and hope the results are as good as yours.
Control freak? I was watching my non-cook husband making pancakes last night!!!!!!!!
cheers.

How heartening to hear marmalade is still being made, and enjoyed at breakfast!

No offence taken Old Thatch.

Just a note for you on frozen Seville oranges. I returned from a trip to France a few years ago to find my freezer full of them. Good friend spotted them in market and knew I would have brought them, had I been there. May I suggest that when you de-frost them you make sure that they are not touching. I left them in bags and they got very soft very quickly. I think this might have been due the expansion and contraction of the ice crystals in the fruit.

On chutney. Sounds like you are another keen producer. What is oldest you have? My current batch is 06 and getting very tasty. The oldest I have ever had was a batch made in 98, a jar of which was hidden and forgotten in the cold dark place I keep goodies in. It was opened in 2005, and was very good, my independent tasters, i.e. not family or close friends loved it.

Cheers to you too!

David

I am using Mary Berry aga recipe and she suggests putting the frozen fruit into the preserving pan and continue cooking as if using fresh fruit. i.e. softening the fruit before cutting the peel. Her preserve recipes are usually spot on. Last year I only made lemon marmalade (a Marguerite Pattern recipe) which is absolutely delicious for supper after herrings, bloaters or kippers and bread and butter for tea. I have only lived in this house in Suffolk for 2 years so all preserves are from that date. Last week I tasted '06 and '07 Beetroot Chutney (Rick Stein) and they seemed completely different, but then each batch has its only little twist don't you think? I made a superb gooseberry jam last year (my husbands favourite) which seemed at first to be
very expensive until the sugar and water was added and then, in fact, it worked out cheaper than any commerically made product. I am passionate about cooking, as it seems is everyone else on this site, and will try my hand at anything but I don't always get it right. At the moment I am battling with flapjacks which seem to be either too hard or too soft and anzac biscuits which are always too soft and am looking forward to trying a new recipe for salt cod. But back to marmalade my sister gave me a jar from her recently made batch and I am going to save it until she visits and use make the 3 Chimneys steamed marmalade pudding which I understand is excellent.
Cheers and good to talk to you.

Did any of the marmalades on Market Kitchen make your mouth water? Find out how to order them by following this link:

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Does it not strike anyone as strange that what is/was a breakfast basic all over the UK is made from a fruit that doesn't naturally grow here?

Well I think you have Mary Queen of Scots and her Spanish connections, aided and abetted by the Portugese Traders to blame or thank for that Barshie!

I've been making my own Seville orange marmalade for years, from Delia Smith's recipe. I'm now living in Perth, Western Australia & I'm impatiently waiting for my first fruits from my own Seville orange tree! It's the only marmalade worth making & I always have a list of friends wanting some! I make up goodie baskets at Christmas filled with home-made preserves, pickles, cookies etc. & they are always enthusiastically recieved, but more importantly, I love doing it.

I love Marmelade but it's the Traditional Stuff of good old W.I. fame.
I suppose it's great to bring it to the fore with a Festival but why did it have to become adulterated with Lime, Whiskey, Chilli etc?
Also with the healthy eating fad movement of the moment, I imagine that the sugar content alone, as with Jam as well, would be a food do godders nightmare.

Sorry "gooders"

Well done to Diana Henry on her marmalade results. 12 out of 20 for a first attempt isn't bad! Wonder if she will keep it up?