Mackays

The Scottish city of Dundee has a long association with marmalade. The oft-related story of how this came about begins sometime in the 1700s when a Spanish ship with a cargo of Seville oranges docked in Dundee harbour to shelter from storms. A grocer by the name of James Keiller bought a vast amount of the cargo at a knock-down price, but found it impossible to sell the bitter oranges to his customers. He passed the oranges on to his wife Janet who used them instead of the normal quinces to make a fruit preserve. The marmalade proved extremely popular and the Keiller family went in to business producing marmalade. However this is almost complete fiction. The truth is that in 1797, James Keiller, who was unmarried at the time, and his mother Janet opened a factory to produce "Dundee Marmalade", that is marmalade containing thick chunks of orange rind, this recipe (probably invented by his mother) being a new twist on the already well-known fruit preserve of orange marmalade.

Over the years, this variety of marmalade became quite popular in Scotland as well as other parts and many other producers emerged in the area to compete against the company that Keiller had grown. Eventually they all faded away - even the Keillers. But one still stands today and is the only remaining producer of Marmalade in the Dundee area.

Mackays was originally founded in 1938 by the Mackay brothers. They are one of the very few companies in the world today that still uses the traditional ‘open pan’ slow boiling method of jam making which gives their preserves and marmalades their distinct homemade taste and flavour.

The rolling boil method is regarded as the only effective way to produce a traditional preserve and this is done by using steam heated copper-bottomed open pans where the fruit and sugar is slowly boiled allowing the natural pectin and acids to be released before gradually setting. If you have ever tried in your own kitchen with a supply of chilled saucers, watching and testing for this magic moment, you will appreciate this skill involved in judging it precisely!

We feature Mackays for our Jelly of the Month Club. This past month, we featured their Three Fruit Marmalade, a delightful combination of Orange, Lemon and Grapefruit. In the past, we have also featured their Scottish Three Berry Preserves, Scottish Raspberry Preserves, Strawberry with Champagne Preserves and Vintage Dundee Orange Marmalade (rumored to be as close to the original 1797 recipe as possible).