To Make 47 Marmollet Of Apples

This recipe for 'Marmollet of Apples' hails from the early 18th century, penned by Christian Barclay Jaffray, a Scottish Quaker woman known for her meticulously kept manuscript recipe and remedy book. Written between 1697 and 1723, Christian’s receipt book documents the domestic, culinary, and medicinal know-how of Scottish households, providing rare insight into women’s everyday knowledge and social networks. The recipe exemplifies a time before commercial pectin and preserves, relying on simple ingredients and careful manual technique to transform autumnal fruit into a cherished sweet preserve. It captures the blend of thrift, ingenuity, and celebration of season that characterized historical home cookery. 'Marmollet' refers to a fruit paste or preserve, similar to what we’d now call marmalade or fruit cheese, but often made with apples or quinces in the British tradition. The recipe’s aim—preserving fruit through sugar—was both practical and festive, bringing brightness to the Scottish winter table.

Back in the early 1700s, home cooks would have used large iron or copper pots set directly over open hearth fires for boiling and reducing fruits. Paring knives would peel and core the apples, while wooden spoons and paddles were essential for stirring thick preserves. To 'put them into a search' meant passing the softened fruit through a sieve or coarse cloth to create a smooth pulp—a laborious task best done with a wooden pestle or the back of a spoon. Sugar was boiled in pans crafted from copper or enamel for even heating. Finished marmollet was stored in ceramic or earthenware pots (referred to as 'dry piggs' in the recipe), then sealed with paper—parchment or oiled—tied down to exclude air.