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Vegetable Marrow Preserve

A preserve made from sliced vegetable marrow, sugar, cayenne pepper, lemon, ginger, saffron, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Vegetable Marrow Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the marrow

  1. Peel the marrow and cut it into long, thin stripes.

  2. Weigh equal weights of sugar.

  3. Sprinkle a small quantity of sugar on the marrow and leave it for a night.

Make the preserve

  1. The next day, put the marrow down with the remainder of the sugar and boil until clear, adding about 20 pods of cayenne pepper to each large marrow.

  2. Add to the mixture four pounds of fruit, the juice and rind of a lemon shredded very fine, some whole ginger (crushed) and a little saffron, all spices tied in a bit of muslin.

  3. Boil for about an hour until sufficient.

  4. Add a wine glassful of spirits just before removing from heat.

By Hamilton, Margaret. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the preserve and, drawn out over a night, helps draw moisture from the marrow and firm it.
Marrow
Forms the body of the preserve, softening into translucent strips as it cooks in sugar.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that sharpens the sweetness of the preserve.
Fruit
Adds fruit flavour and juice that combine with the sugar into the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil until clear. Cooking the marrow in sugar syrup until it turns clear shows the sugar has penetrated the flesh. Stopping too early leaves it opaque and watery, and boiling too long can make it overly soft or sticky.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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