Lemon marmalade, Spain eating habits and la merienda

Natacha Sanz Caballero Sauces, Desserts and Sweets breakfast, citrus, eating habits, jams, meals, preserves, tea time

Citrus marmalades are my favorite ones and since I already featured the recipe for orange marmalade  (one of the blog’s most visited posts!), today is the turn for lemon marmalade.

If you like very sweet marmalades, I have to warn you, this one may not be the one for you. It is citrusy, therefore, more tangy, but obviously, also sweet – otherwise it wouldn’t be a marmalade, right?

And with this recipe, it’s time to address the beloved and most idiosyncratic meal in the Spanish culture: la merienda.

I could translate la merienda to something like the afternoon snack, the pick-me-up between lunch and dinner. However, in Spain, it is more than that. It is a tradition, an eating habit that becomes not just a meal in itself, but part of the afternoon routine. To understand it, let’s talk a bit about Spain’s eating habits.

Eating habits

In Spain there are three principal meal times: el desayuno, first thing in the morning, la comida, at midday and la cena, the meal at the end of the day.

One meal that prevails over all of them is la comida, the midday meal, the most important and substantial, both in Spain and in the majority of Mediterranean countries.

Not very long ago, maybe until about only two decades ago, la comida, lunch, was the most formal meal, usually meaning the presence of the whole family. In more recent times, and with the new lifestyles, not only in Spain’s larger cities, but even in the smallest towns, this meal has evolved into a more informal one, and also not one that necessarily brings the whole family around the table. In my school years, classes started at 9 AM and went to 1:30 PM, with a 30 minute break between 11:00 and 11:30, and then restarted back at 3:30 PM and went until 5:30 PM. This gave families a 2-hour window to meet around the table for la comida.

Nowadays, schedules have changed in most of the country, with a more concentrated school day that leaves little time for lunch, much like in the US. However, for the most part, one thing that has not changed is the fact that la comida consists of two courses. The first course is usually more carbohydrate based and the second course contains the main protein. In a typical comida, the meal ends with fruit for dessert followed by a Spanish coffee, espresso-like.

With respect to el desayuno, breakfast, the Spaniards are known for not placing much importance on it. In fact, for the most part, it is a light, continental breakfast which includes orange juice, café con leche, coffee with milk, or hot cocoa, and toast with butter and marmalade — in our family it was always orange or lemon marmalade made by my mom with the fruit of the trees at our house. The beloved Maria cookies have traditionally been also part of the Spanish desayuno.

The light breakfast has never been a huge issue, because mid-morning, Spaniards have a small meal, el almuerzo. Almuerzo consists generally of some cured meats, chorizo or jamón serrano, Spanish ham, in a piece of baguette drizzled with olive oil, or with some rubbed fresh tomato. This is what most school children used to have during the mid morning break.

La merienda

It is well-known that meals happen late in Spain. Dinner is usually around 10 PM and it is, therefore, a light meal. For this very reason, another in-between-meals meal, much like the mid-morning almuerzo, happens between la comida and la cena. It is la merienda.

La merienda is the light meal between lunch and dinner, and it applies mostly to school age children. Similar to the almuerzo, it usually consists of a piece of baguette filled with cured meats (chorizo, salchichón, jamón serrano, lomo embuchado), cheeses (manchego being the most popular) and maybe a drizzle of olive oil or some fresh tomato. A piece of bollería, baked good, would also be considered a merienda. In fact, in my home region of Valencia, some very popular meriendas include monjavina (recipe here) or coca de llanda (recipe here).

There’s a variant of la merienda, and that is la merienda-cena, with elements from both. Similar to la merienda, it is consumed mid to late afternoon, and consists of a bocadillo, a baguette sandwich similar to the one described above, and may be followed by fruit and a small sweet. It is, therefore a heavier meal and one that replaces dinner, hence its name. If anything, children will have a glass of milk or chocolate milk before they go to bed.

As mentioned before, Spain’s eating habits have been evolving with the changing lifestyles, and while the habits described above may have changed slightly, they are part of Spain’s idiosyncrasy and cultural tradition.

The same could be said of lemon marmalade in our family: while this is not exactly my mom’s recipe (hers is unique), orange, lemon and plum marmalade making —all tangy marmalades—are a tradition in our family, always made with the abundant fruit from the trees in the garden.

I invite you to make lemon marmalade and let me know what you think. I’m sure the flavor will tantalize you.

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5 from 1 vote

LEMON MARMALADE

Mermelada de limón

Author: Natacha Sanz Caballero, Mama Ía blog

Equipment

• Juicer
• Vegetable peeler
• Canning glass jars

Ingredients

• 4 Lbs lemons about 12 lemons
• 6 cups granulated sugar 3 Lbs

Instructions

• Peel the lemons almost superficially, leaving the white part of the citrus behind.
• Half them and juice them (you should get about 4 cups of lemon juice). Save the seeds and place them in a small bowl with water.
• Slice the peels transversally into very thin strips about 1/8 inch wide.
• Wrap the seeds in a piece of gauze and tie it up (I used a square of surgical gauze). Reserve the water.
• Place the lemon peel strips and lemon juice, the gauze with the seeds and the reserved water in a stockpot. Add 4 cups of water. Cook 1 hour at medium heat. Remove from the heat source and let rest for 24 hours.
• The next day, remove the seeds and discard them. Place the stockpot back on the stove at medium-low heat, add the sugar and 2 cups of water and cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for about 1 1/2 hours, until the mixture thickens slightly to a consistency somewhere between syrup and jelly. Remove from the heat source and let rest for about 20 minutes (the mixture will thicken further).
• While the marmalade is cooking, sterilize the jars: place them in a stockpot tall enough to cover them completely with water. Boil the jars for 10 minutes. Carefully remove them from the pot and let dry. Next, immerse the lids in the water and boil for 10 minutes. Remove carefully and let dry.
• Fill the jars with the marmalade and close trightly. Place the jars in the stockpot where you sterilized the jars, cover them with water, bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low and process for 45 minutes. Remove the stockpot from the heat source. You can let the jars cool down in the water until it comes down to room temperature or carefully remove them from the hot water using an oven mitten.
• When the jars are cool enough to hadle, label them and store them. The marmalade will last for many months.

Notes

• Making marmalade is a two-day process, so plan accordingly
• Lemon marmalade makes for a delicious gift. Your friends will appreciate it!