Marmalade

Food · Pantry & Condiment · Food, Typed Supps

Jam with peel in it, which changes the taste and almost nothing else.

Stage by stage

Bitterness (Taste): The peel’s bitter compounds are why people typically spread less of it than jam.
Sets without pectin (The pan): Citrus pith is rich enough in pectin that none needs adding.
Free sugar (Circulation): 62.3 g added per 100 g — indistinguishable from jam in practice.
Little fibre (Gut): 0.8 g per 100 g, actually less than berry jam despite the peel.

Timing

Nothing to time. If it is grapefruit marmalade and you take a statin or a calcium channel blocker, the usual grapefruit caution applies.

Time to effect

15–30 min: Glycaemic peak.
Per tablespoon: Around 12 g of free sugar.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Cost band

Mid — roughly £5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Sugar

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 253
Protein: 0.1g
Carbohydrate: 65.5g
of which sugars: 65.4g
Fibre: 0.8g
Sodium: 33mg

Food vs. supplement

Citrus peel really is the most nutritious part of an orange, and marmalade is the demonstration that containing a nutritious ingredient and being a nutritious food are different claims.

Kitchen tip

If you prefer it to jam, that is a taste preference and a fine one. It is not a nutritional upgrade in any measurable respect.

Common myth

“Marmalade has peel in it, so it’s got more fibre than jam.” In reality: It has less — 0.8 g per 100 g against berry jam’s 1.6 g. Citrus peel genuinely is the most nutritious part of the fruit, and there is not enough of it in the jar for that to register. The sugar is the same as jam within a few grams. What does differ is the bitterness, which tends to make people spread it more thinly, and that is a real if accidental advantage.