Liz spreads word as Brits go mad for marmalade
Lockdown boost for sales
THE moment a new trend spreads around town, Elizabeth Hurley is all over it.
So she had a jam-packed lockdown schedule, making marmalade.
Looking typically well-preserved, Liz, 55, posted a picture of herself, saying: “Lockdown has turned me into a demented housewife – 47 jars of marmalade nestling in my larder with more Seville oranges awaiting me.”
Liz’s ex and Paddington 2 star Hugh Grant, 60, immediately thought of someone who would love to eat every jar until he was stuffed.
He commented under her picture: “Paddington 3”.
Marmalade sales shot up after the release of the first Paddington film in 2014, as the bear famously keeps pots and sandwiches under his hat.
It seems lockdown has made us all go just as potty for all kinds of breakfast spreads, buying 75 million more jars last year, in a £120million sales boost, analysts Kantar found. We shelled out £28.5million more on peanut butter, a 26.9 per cent rise, making it the biggest winner as work from home and lockdown gave us more time to spend on breakfast.
Sales of jam, honey, chocolate spread, yeast extract, marmalade and curds also took off. But with Seville oranges in the shops, it’s homemade marmalade that is getting people’s juices flowing right now. Marmalade came to Britain in the 15th century from Portugal. It was made from quince paste and called “marmelo”.
The oldest recipe for orange marmalade comes from 1677, and it is reckoned a Scots couple first produced jars in Dundee in the 1790s, using Seville oranges washed up from a wrecked ship. Seems it has never lost its a-peel.