PINEAPPLE AND ROSEMARY EXTRA JAM

Pineapple and rosemary jam, is a tasty compound with a gelatinous consistency made of the fruit in question, the medicinal plant, water and sugar. 

Pineapple is the fruit of a palm tree of the Bromeliaceae family, native to Latin America and specifically to states such as Brazil and Paraguay. This particular yellow fruit arrived in the Old Continent thanks to Christopher Columbus who imported it on his return from his discoveries. 

The name pineapple comes from the term anana which in the language of Indians meant perfume, because of the intense sweet aroma of the fruit. Conquistadors mistakenly called it “piña of India”, because of its strange shape which resembles the one of a pine cone. However after its spreading in Europe, thanks to Spanish, it was called “piña real” because of its golden color, almost similar to gold, as well as for its high cost for that time which made it a food reserved to royalty and aristocrats.

In ancient times, according to some legends of its lands of origin, pineapple was a symbol of hospitality to be offered and it was also used in some Aztec rituals as a fruit emblem of success and power.

Moreover pineapple is a fruit rich in precious nutrients and vitamins, such as bromelain.

Rosemary is an evergreen plant with small pointed leaves and a pretty lilac flowering, it is a shrub often spontaneous and widely spread on the coasts of the Mediterranean. 

This scented little tree was already loved and appreciated in ancient times for its exceptional aromatic and therapeutic properties. Doctor Galen in the second century AD discovered its properties useful for digestion and started to use it in many of his famous preparations. 

Besides being an official plant, rosemary is an excellent aromatizer in cooking, since then it spread so much in the Bel Paese that it became a distinctive symbol, its fresh and almost salty taste recalls the Italian coasts and the sea breeze of Mare Nostrum, as well as its Latin name which derives from the words Ros (Nom.: dew) and Maris (Gen.: of the sea).

Jam is the name used to identify all fruit based preserves, whereas the term marmalade, often used in our language as a synonym, is used only for citrus fruits based products.

The production of this sweet sauce is very ancient, it is already mentioned in the cookbook of the Roman writer Apicius, who told us that in the fourth and fifth century Greeks boiled quinces together with honey in order to obtain a sweet spreadable mixture. 

A rudimentary jam was also appreciated by Romans who produced it by mixing fruit, grape must, raisin wine and honey. 

For the use of sugar instead we must wait for the Middle Ages, which allowed to obtain a result more similar to the ones we can taste today.

It is in fact in this period that marmalade was invented and there are many legends about its origin. The birth of orange marmalade is attributed to queen Catherine of Aragon, who after her marriage with the king of England Henry VIII, feeling the lack of the fruits of her homeland, created this sweet compound in order to taste them in her new home as well.

Another legend instead attributes the creation and the name to the duchess Maria de Medici, who after her marriage and the following transfer to France with her husband Henry IV, began to suffer from a lack of vitamin C. In order to solve the problem, her doctor ordered a cure made of the best citrus fruits of Sicily, at that time however it was not easy to keep fruit for the time of such a long journey, therefore in order to solve the problem they prepared glass jars with citrus fruits and sugar, on which there was the writing “for sick Maria” which in French was misinterpreted as “marimalede”.