Marchesi di San Giuliano: Eight Centuries of Sicilian Citrus
Marchesi di San Giuliano grows its citrus and cooks its preserves on the same estate in eastern Sicily, between Catania and Siracusa, on land the Paternò Castello family has owned for more than eight hundred years. The recipes come from a family cookbook, and for generations they were the family's breakfast before they were a business. The marmalade method has stayed where it began: fruit picked by hand in winter, sliced by hand, soaked overnight, cooked slowly with only cane sugar added. The jam, preserves, marmalade and fruit butter guide explains what makes a marmalade a marmalade.
The estate
The estate sits at Villasmundo and covers roughly 250 hectares of volcanic soil, planted with organically farmed citrus groves alongside olive trees, avocados and mangos. The estate's American importer notes that some trees planted in the early 1800s, before Italy was unified, are still bearing fruit.
On this estate the grower and the cook are the same family on the same land, and the distance from branch to cooking pot is a walk across the property. That is what eight hundred years of ownership amounts to in practice: recipes from one family cookbook, cooked with fresh fruit from the estate's own groves.
The family cookbook
The recipes come from the cookbook of Maria Paternò Castello, of the Carcaci ducal family. For generations the marmalades and biscuits were simply part of the family's breakfast. In the early 1980s, Fiamma di San Giuliano decided to sell what the household had always made, drawing on the orchards and on the culinary experience of the long-serving household staff. The preserves are made in a kitchen on a small contrada within the property named Curcuraggi. Giulia di San Giuliano now manages the estate with her father, and the range still reads like a family breakfast table: citrus marmalades, butter biscuits, fruit in syrup, Sicilian eucalyptus blossom honey and olive oil from the estate's own groves.
How the marmalade is made
The citrus is harvested by hand and production runs through the winter months, using only fresh fruit from the estate's own groves. For the marmalade, the fruit is sliced by hand, soaked in cold water overnight, then cooked down slowly. Only cane sugar is added, and no thickeners or preservatives are used. Citrus peel is naturally rich in pectin, the setting agent that commercial producers extract mainly from citrus and apples.
The range, jar by jar
| Product | What it is | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Orange slices in syrup (shop Orange Slices in Syrup) | Orange slices preserved in syrup with a touch of brandy | Over ricotta or gelato, beside a chocolate cake, on a cheese plate, chopped into cake batter |
| Citrus marmalades | Hand-sliced Sicilian fruit, peel and all, cooked with cane sugar | Morning toast, stirred into yogurt, spooned beside aged cheese, glazing roast poultry |
| Butter biscuits | Butter biscuits in flavors including orange, lemon, ginger and pistachio | Espresso, afternoon tea, alongside a spoonful of marmalade |
| Eucalyptus blossom honey | Sicilian eucalyptus blossom honey | Toast, tea, a cheese plate |
| Extra virgin olive oil | Oil from the estate's own olive trees | Bread, vegetables, anything that wants a finishing oil |
The orange slices in syrup (shop Orange Slices in Syrup) belong to the fruit-slice line the estate calls its signature: orange slices preserved in sugar syrup with a touch of brandy. Lift a slice onto fresh ricotta, a panna cotta or a scoop of gelato and dessert is finished in the time it takes to open the jar. The syrup has uses of its own, in sparkling water, over yogurt or in a glaze for roast poultry. The slices can be chopped into cake batter the way candied peel would be.
The marmalades show the method on their surface: hand-sliced fruit and peel held in a set, not a smooth spread. They work at breakfast and as condiments. A spoonful next to an aged pecorino or a blue cheese does the job quince paste does, in a citrus register. The marmalade recipe guide starts with toast and goes further.
The biscuits come from the same kitchen and the same family recipes: butter biscuits in flavors including orange, lemon, ginger and pistachio. They are breakfast biscuits in the Italian sense, made for an espresso or a cup of tea, and they sit naturally beside a spoonful of marmalade.
Marmalade beyond the British jar
Marmalade's best-known history runs through Dundee, in Scotland, and the bitter Seville orange, but the style belongs to the whole citrus world. San Giuliano makes it from the fruit of its own Sicilian groves. It is not alone on its island, as the Caravaglio producer guide to the caper growers of Salina shows. Tasting a Sicilian marmalade beside a British-style orange one is a good way to see that marmalade is a technique, not a single flavor.
Sources & Further Reading
- Marchesi di San Giuliano: the estate's own history, the family, the land and the kitchen at Curcuraggi
- Marchesi di San Giuliano: the range, from marmalades and butter biscuits to the signature fruit slices in syrup
- Marchesi di San Giuliano: Sicilian Orange Slices in syrup, product page and ingredients
- Manicaretti Imports: the producer profile, the cookbook of Maria Paternò Castello and the production method
- Polymers (2024): Source, Extraction, Properties, and Multifunctional Applications of Pectin, on the pectin content of citrus peel
- Abertay: Keillers of Dundee, on the Seville orange and the Dundee marmalade trade
- The Pantry Dispatch: Jam, Preserves, Marmalade and Fruit Butter
- Marmalade, The Recipe to Learn First guide
