How We Craft
Our Fruits
We source all our strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants from berry fields in eastern Scotland.
The temperate climate in Scotland allows for the fruit to be grown for longer, resulting in stronger flavours.
Querky facts:
Blackcurrants are considered to be “superfruits” as they contain over 300% of the daily requirement of Vitamin C and many other nutrients.
Over 15,000 tonnes of raspberries are grown in the Tayside Region of Scotland every year.
Elsanta is the UK’s most popular variety of strawberries, with its orange-red colour being the berry’s greatest asset.
Quality Ingredients
We only use the finest quality ingredients in our preserves and marmalades. All our bitter oranges for our marmalades come from Seville - the home of the marmalade orange and we only ever use whole berries in our preserves, for a great tasting product.
Querky facts:
Bitter Seville oranges with their thick dimpled skin are ideal for marmalade making. Their high levels of pectin help the marmalade to set properly.
Seville oranges have been growing since the 12th century and for the 500 years which followed; they were the only type of orange available in Europe.
In Mexico, Seville oranges are eaten cut in half, salted, and coated with a paste of hot chilli peppers.
The Seville orange season lasts from mid-January to February: any amateur marmalade makers wanting to try their hand in the kitchen only have these precious few weeks to buy their oranges.
Traditional Methods
Our steam heated copper pans use a rolling boil method. The fruit and sugar is slowly boiled allowing the flavours to be released before gradually setting.
We use copper because it's the best metal for conducting heat and steam giving the most even temperature across the pan.
The copper pans are made locally near Dundee because we believe in supporting local craftsmanship.
Taste
To create the perfect home-cooked flavour we put a great deal of care and attention into judging exactly when our products are ready.
We taste the product once it’s cooked to ensure every jar has the home-made taste you expect from Mackays.
