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Marmalade: A Very British Obsession
- pansa2 6y ago> A Very British Obsession > Edmund Hillary took [a jar] up Everest Edmund Hillary wasn’t British.
- tobylane 6y agoI didn’t know that and I don’t think we were taught that detail. He was from New Zealand and ‘we count that’ as some say. The teachers probably stressed the British expedition part of the truth. I can’t stand Seville orange marmalade but lime marmalade is good.
- sjwright 6y agoAussie here. Home made seville orange marmalade is the good stuff. Everything else is just gross orange sugar goop. If I wanted to spread flavoured sucrose onto my bread, there are much more appealing options like blackberry. (And don't get me started about lime. Lime is the most overrated citrus.)
- Thorentis 6y agoWhere can you buy Seville orange marmalade in Aus? The cheap marmalade you buy from Coles is like gelatin + sugar with some orange food coloring.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sjwright 6y agoNowhere. I have to make it myself or wait for my mum to produce a new batch. She has so much interest that she makes 20–30 jars at a time.
- robaato 6y agoMy mum emigrated to Gold Coast decades ago - still makes great marmalade in her 80s!
- EdwardDiego 6y agoHillary also really pissed off the British explorer Fuchs on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition by racing ahead to the South Pole when he was only supposed to be laying out food caches. [1] But here in NZ, we kinda like the fact that he stuck it to the British. We even have one of his modified tractors in the Canterbury Museum. Another random factoid - part of Hillary's team was Peter Mulgrew, who died in the Erebus disaster[2] having replaced Hillary as the tour guide at the last minute. [1]: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/hillary-reaches-south-pole https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/hillary-reaches-south-pole [2]: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/erebus-disaster https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/erebus-disaster
- ThePadawan 6y ago(Disclaimer: I'm not British nor a native speaker and have no interest in claiming one side or the other) When Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland (in 1919), New Zealdn was not yet independent, but a "Dominion" of the British Empire. What would even be the best demonym to refer to anyone born in that dominion?
- EdwardDiego 6y agoNew Zealander or Kiwi. Our sense of being a nation distinct from "Home" as Britain was called really took off after World War One. While we weren't technically independent, we'd been self-governing since 1865, although it took us a lot longer to cut all of the apron strings, and well, the Queen is still our head of state, so who knows if or when we'll go full republic - most NZers don't really care. But hey, in the 2000s we stopped using the Privy Council in England as our highest court. http://www.firstworldwar.tki.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Images/Y5-8-IA/_resampled/ResizedImage600464-ANZAC-Day.jpg http://www.firstworldwar.tki.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Images/Y5...
- tim333 6y agoAccording to a gov.nz site "In 1948 New Zealanders became New Zealand citizens – before that they had been British citizens." So Hillary would have been a British citizen most of his life and possibly acquired a liking for marmalade while in that state.
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoTo add to that it was only a few years earlier, 1947 (vs 1953) that NZ ratified the law allowing their further independence from Britain. Wikipedia claims that into the 70s many in NZ considered themselves to be part of a British colony. Also the expedition was the "British Mount Everest expedition". I think it's fair to include marmalade being in Hillary's supplies as being indicative of British cultural adoration of marmalade. Hillary's grandparents were from Yorkshire, UK. Apparently Hillary, as his father and brother, was a beekeeper; I wonder if he took honey too.
- growlist 6y agoWell as someone from The Commonwealth, he was Brit-ish.
- goatforce5 6y agoHis team also took Kendal Mint Cake up Everest: > Sir Edmund Hillary and his team carried Romney's Kendal Mint Cake with them on the first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953. The packaging currently includes the following: “'We sat on the snow and looked at the country far below us … we nibbled Kendal Mint Cake.' A member of the successful Everest expedition wrote – 'It was easily the most popular item on our high altitude ration – our only criticism was that we did not have enough of it.'” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake Imagine a Peppermint Pattie, but intensified by an order of magnitude.
- DoingIsLearning 6y agoI think most folks are missing out if they just try the british version of orange marmalade. The Portuguese original 'marmelada' made from quinces is sooo much better IMOH. But (again in my opinion) nothing surpass the Brazilian take on marmelade, the "Goiabada", which is made with guava.
- Konohamaru 6y agoThis is the most posh thing I've read on HN so far. Don't share this with strangers unless you want everyone to know you're elite.
- DoingIsLearning 6y agoPerhaps it's posh from an american centric point of view. If you are in Portugal or Brazil it is as posh as eating butter.
- lucideer 6y agoDon't see the poshness? Elaborate?
- arethuza 6y agoDoingIsLearning blatantly admits to eating "foreign" food and from more than one country! Perhaps not being from the UK is no excuse! ;-)
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- me_me_me 6y agoYou couldn't make this post scream more Americuaaaa!
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoAmericans generally don't use the word posh.
- dreen 6y agoFrom my biased personal observation, I think the British have a higher affinity for bitter tastes due to their own heightened levels of bitterness. Maybe it's the weather. Incidentally, I believe British comedy being so good is also related to that.
- ThePadawan 6y agoPotentially there might also a genetic component? This is highly speculative on my part.
- MaxBarraclough 6y agoI sincerely doubt it, as there are celebrated British comedians of various ethnicities, for instance Romesh Ranganathan.
- ThePadawan 6y agoOh I'm sorry, I meant to say "a genetic component to the perception of bitter flavors", much in the same way as with the taste of cilantro.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago> I think the British have a higher affinity for bitter tastes due to their own heightened levels of bitterness. Maybe it's the weather. As a Brit, I resent that! And plenty else besides. And that's despite the brief window of nice weather we're now having. Which, incidentally, is too hot, and is making many of us terribly bothered. Some of us even border on the flummoxed. Still more incidentally, I personally don't have strong feelings on marmalade, but I have very strong feelings on the proper way to prepare a scone. This is an issue that divides my nation. I refer the reader to an article which is about as British as the mind can comfortably conceive: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/queen-scones-jam-cream-what-goes-first-debate-cream-tea-outrage-a8260686.html https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/quee...
- 6y ago
- onion2k 6y agoTo be fair, anything you can add whisky to is good.
- tim333 6y agoAs a Brit I hadn't had Marmalade for years and then was given a jar to sustain myself by Thai medical staff while under covid quarantine in Ao Nang. I guess they figured that was what Brits should be fed on. It was rather nice for a change.
- 29athrowaway 6y agoMelon jam (from jam melons) is among the best I have tried.
- Findeton 6y agoAs a Spaniard from Andalucía (and living now in London), I am always amazed at the British obsession with Seville oranges. As it turns out, a relative of mine actually produces lots of oranges in Seville, most of them going to the UK.
- jfk13 6y agoWhat's amazing about it? They make by far the best marmalade (although it's true that a lot of the commercially-made stuff is mediocre, so if that's all you've tried then you might not understand). Anyway, if the people in Seville are prepared to part with their treasures, we're delighted to take them!