Scotland’s Meg Dods

In 1828, 30 years after Janet Keiller reputedly made her first batch of Dundee marmalade, Mrs Margaret Dods published a new edition of her The Cook and Housewife’s Manual, containing the ‘most approved modern recipes’. This is the book most referenced by the writer F. Marian McNeill, who published The Scots Kitchen in 1929. Her iconic book gives a thorough account of cooking in Scotland throughout the ages, with definitive recipes for the national dishes and their associated traditions and folklore. The only recipe for marmalade that she includes in her book is Meg Dods’ one for ‘Scotch Orange Chip Marmalade’. Among my most treasured possessions is a copy of Meg Dods’ original book and on page 427, I found the following recipe.