On Food and Cooking

earliest sugar preserves were probably fruit
pieces immersed in syrupy honey (the Greek
term for quinces packed in honey, melimelon,
gave us the word marmalade) or in the boiled-
down juice of wine grapes. The first step
toward jams and jellies was the discovery that
when they were cooked together, sugar and
fruit developed a texture that neither could
achieve on its own. In the 4th century CE,
Palladius gave directions for cooking down
shredded quince in honey until its volume was
reduced by half, which would have made a
stiff, opaque paste similar to today’s “fruit
cheese” (spreadable “fruit butter” is less
reduced). By the 7th century there were
recipes for what were probably clear and
delicate jellies made by boiling the juice of
quince with honey. A second important
innovation was the introduction from Asia of
cane sugar, which unlike honey is nearly pure
sugar, with no moisture that needs boiling off,
and no strong flavor that competes with the