Brevities

Once upon a time a French queen by the name of Marie was ill. When the wise physicians were called in they decided that Her Majesty eat only very soft food, fruits cooked to pulp or strained through a sieve. The ladies-in-waiting rushed down to the kitchen and called to the chef —an artist in his profession: “Marie est malade—Marie is ill, cook her some fruit and make it so and so and thus and thus.”

The chef was angry that he should take orders from mere physicians and ladies-in-waiting, but he did as he was bidden and did it beautifully. Only he gave no fancy name to the new concoction. When they came down for it he said grumpily: “Here is your marie-est-malade,” and that was the name which has clung to the new dish.

Well, the new culinary creation was a great success, and when foreign visitors came to court, the chef was ordered to prepare it. Some English princess and her ladies even came down to the kitchen and learned to make marie-est-malade themselves and introduced it to the British Isles. But in crossing the channel the name suffered a sea-change and marie-est-malade became marmalade and as such has been the favorite the world over. Even those women who do little cooking themselves delight to make their own marmalade and have their favorite recipes for it. The following instructions for orange marmalade are the cherished possession of a lovely Viennese lady who permitted me to copy them for you.

Take any number of oranges and allow one lemon for each five oranges. Wipe fruit with damp cloth, cut each in quarters, then cut each quarter into very thin slices, keeping pulps as well as rind, but discarding the seeds. For each pound of prepared fruit allow three pints of cold water. Let the fruit stand in the water for twenty-four hours, cook then till peel is very tender, or about six hours, and let stand again for another twenty-four hours. Weigh the mixture and add one pound of sugar for each pound of fruit. Mix and let cook until the syrup jellies on a cold dish. Keep marmalade in glass jars and cover with paraffin.