Preservation - Two Ways of Making Marmalade

As a child, I remember going to the forest and to our garden with my family to pick various berries, and then sitting for hours next to my mother, watching, how she turned the sour black currant into something magical. Having grown up in the Soviet Union, preservation was always very important to my mother. To this day, I can still go to our basement and find hundreds of jars filled with a great selection of preserved food. This extends to many families throughout the world, due to the abundance of fruits during harvest time. It has been a pivotal question since the dawn of man, to somehow preserve the food one has.  (Tannahill, 1973) It has been achieved through different means: early humans in colder climates stored their food in secret places (Tannahill, 1973), while in later times, drying meat also became a common practice (Ryslett, 2025). Preparing marmalade is a later discovery, requiring a sweet agent like sugar or honey to produce it, which was not readily available for most prehistoric humans. (Wolf, 2016) However, this allows for fruits to stay good longer, while also providing a sweet relief.

Getting the recipe from my mother
Photo: Anna Horvath

        Therefore, when I was preparing to make marmalade, I knew who to call. Interestingly enough, the recipe my mother provided me with was very similar to the recipe “quick-cooked jam” we were provided with by our professor. This instantly made me curious as to the end results, which consequently led to me preparing both of them for our assignment. They differed in the fact that my mother’s recipe included lemon juice and apples in it. She told me that the apple is crucial for the marmalade, for it releases a lot of pectin, which thickens it. (G. Horvath, personal communication, August 30, 2025) The lemon, she asserted, was there for the apples not to oxidize and to keep the marmalade having a nice color. (G. Horvath, personal communication, August 30, 2025)

Blueberry and strawberry jam (mom’s way) 

Ingredients:

- 200 g blueberries

- 200 g strawberries

- 200 g sugar

- squeezed juice from half a lemon

- two small, sour, green apples

Apples in their lemon bath

Photo: Anna Horvath

Instructions:

        Firstly, prepare a lemon-water bath for the apples. Then cut the apples into small pieces—approximately 1 cm  x 1 cm. To be sure that the apples do not start oxidizing while cutting, I squeezed a little bit of lemon juice unto them. This, however, only applies to people that work very slowly. 

Sterilizing the lids

Photo: Anna Horvath

        

        Afterwards, take the apples out of their lemon bath and put them in a pot with a lid, and a little bit of water to steam them on a medium heat. While you are waiting for the apples to become soft, put your jars into the oven on 100 degrees Celsius and the lids into boiling water.

Fruits mixed together

Photo: Anna Horvath

            When the apples become easy to smush, add the fruits and let it all simmer until all the berries become soft. Use a spatula afterwards to mash them, until you arrive at a texture you like. I prefer having smaller chunks of fruits in my marmalade, therefore I did not turn the mixture a pulp. After arriving at a good consistency, add all sugar and mix it in.

Finished product
Photo: Anna Horvath

        While the marmalade is simmering, take excess foam forming on the top. After five minutes of this, take your now ready marmalade off the heat and immediately pour it into the hot jars. Make sure to fill the jars up almost to the rim, so no bacteria can linger in the jar. Next, screw the lids on tightly and turn the marmalade filled jars upside down, to create a vacuum seal. After five minutes, turn the jars right side up and transfer them under a blanket for it to stay warm. My mother advised to do this, so that the marmalade stays good for a longer time, by cooling down at a slower rate. Et voilà, you have made yourself approximately 600 grams of marmalade.

Blueberry and strawberry jam (professor’s way)

And now, moving unto the recipe provided by our professor, we need the same amount of ingredients, leaving out the lemon and apples. (Rylsett, K., Fooladi, E., 2025)

Mixed berries in pot
Photo: Anna Horvath

     

        Add the berries to a pot and let them steam on medium heat with the lid on, occasionally stirring to avoid burning them. The jars and lids have to go through the same procedure as last time, to disinfect them properly. When the berries become soft, mash them up as last time, to your preference, and then add the sugar.

Almost finished marmalade
Photo: Anna Horvath

        Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for a couple of minutes, until the sugar has dissolved. If there is any excess foam on the top, take it off. Lastly, take the jars out of the oven and pour in the marmalade into them, following the same instructions as with my mother’s recipe. 

Second recipe's finished product
Photo: Anna Horvath

        After tasting both marmalades and checking for consistency, I noticed that the one that contains apples, is a lot more thicker than the one without them. Furthermore, the taste seems to have a more developed taste in the latter one. Perhaps, this could be the result from the lemon bringing in more acidity into the marmalade. However, the quick-cooked jam took significantly less time due to it being more straight forward.

Finally, unfortunately, having lived in Volda for only a very short amount of time, I did not have appropriate-sized jars, hence, one of the jars turned out to be too big for the amount of marmalade I made. 

References

Horvath, G. (August 30, 2025). Personal communication.

Ryslett, K., Fooladi, E. (August, 2025). Norwegian Food Culture: Juicing, pickling, canning ERAMAK 101. University College Volda.

Ryslett, K. (August, 2025). Norwegian Food Culture: Lecture. University College Volda. 

Tannahill, R. (1973). Food in History. 

Wolf, B. (2016). Confectionery and Sugar-Based Foods. In Elsevier eBook.