Jam and Marmalade
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40 free Jam and Marmalade trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A jar of jam looks like the simplest thing on the breakfast table, yet it carries centuries of history. Marmalade began as something quite different from the bitter-orange spread on today's toast, and the argument over what goes on a scone first is still running. This quiz covers the flavours of marmalade, from the classic bitter orange to paler and greener citrus versions, and the wider family of breakfast preserves: jams, jellies, curds, fruit butters and pastes from Britain, America, Europe and Asia. Expect the brands behind the famous jars, the kitchen science that makes a preserve set, and the cakes, doughnuts and biscuits that would be nothing without a spoonful of filling. It is written for curious eaters, home preservers and anyone who has wondered why a certain bear is so devoted to his sandwiches. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish with a few facts worth sharing over breakfast.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Marmalade-loving Paddington Bear arrived in London as a stowaway from which South American country?
Peru
Peru was a late fix: Michael Bond first wrote that Paddington came from darkest Africa, until his agent pointed out that no bears live there.
Q 02In a 2022 Jubilee sketch with Paddington Bear, where did Elizabeth II say she kept a marmalade sandwich?
In her handbag
In her handbag, she revealed, kept for emergencies just as he keeps one. The pre-recorded sketch opened the Platinum Party at the Palace concert.
Q 03The word marmalade comes from marmelo, the Portuguese name for which fruit once boiled into a firm paste?
Quince
Quince was the original marmalade fruit: in the 1500s England imported it as a firm, sticky paste from Spain and Italy, long before orange versions appeared.
Q 04During World War I, British and ANZAC troops turned empty jam tins into improvised versions of which weapon?
Hand grenades
Hand grenades were so scarce early in the war that engineers packed ration jam tins with explosive and scrap metal, and the ANZACs set up a tin-bomb factory at Gallipoli.
Q 05The jam doughnut that John F. Kennedy is wrongly said to have called himself is named after which German city?
Berlin
Berlin gives the Berliner doughnut its name, yet in the city itself the pastry is called a Pfannkuchen, one reason the tale of a laughing crowd is a myth.
Q 06Which English county's cream-tea tradition puts clotted cream on the scone first, with the jam on top?
Devon
Devon spreads the cream first and crowns it with jam, while neighbouring Cornwall insists on jam first; in practice both counties serve it both ways.
Q 07Which fruit's jelly is the classic partner for peanut butter in the American PB&J sandwich?
Grape
Grape jelly, usually from dark Concord fruit, is the standard choice; the sandwich began as a teahouse dainty and was later eaten by US soldiers in World War II.
Q 08A popular but false tale traces the word marmalade to the French-speaking maids of which seasick royal?
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots supposedly ate it for seasickness while her maids whispered in French that madam was ill. The word's real origin has nothing to do with her.
Q 09Which Spanish city gives its name to the bitter oranges prized for traditional British marmalade?
Seville
Seville oranges give a better set than sweet ones, so once a year fruit picked from the city's own trees is shipped to Britain for marmalade.
Q 10Which British royal, fond of jam-filled sponge cakes at tea, gave her name to a classic sandwich cake?
Victoria
Victoria enjoyed the little cakes with her afternoon tea, and hers would have been filled with jam alone; the cream is a modern addition.
Q 11Which natural gelling substance, plentiful in apples and citrus peel, is what makes a pan of boiled jam set?
Pectin
Pectin was isolated by French chemist Henri Braconnot in 1825, though cooks had relied on it for centuries, and today it is mostly extracted from dried citrus peel.
Q 12In American usage, jelly differs from jam because it is made from only which part of the fruit?
The juice
The juice alone goes into a jelly, with seeds and pulp filtered out, which is why it sets clear and sparkling while jam keeps the crushed fruit.
Q 13Vienna's glossy chocolate Sachertorte hides a layer of jam made from which fruit?
Apricot
Apricot jam is so essential that Viennese versions made with other fruit cannot be called Sachertorte; in one story Franz Sacher invented it as a teenage apprentice.
Q 21Fruit curd, served with scones as an alternative to jam, is thickened by gently heating sugar with which ingredient?
Egg yolks
Egg yolks thicken a curd much as they do a custard, which is why home-made curd was made in small batches: it never kept as well as jam.
Q 22Sarah Cooper's 1874 marmalade recipe, later eaten by James Bond in a Fleming novel, is named after which English city?
Oxford
Oxford marmalade began as 76 pounds made by Sarah Cooper to her own recipe, and it caught on with the university's dons and students before selling far beyond the city.
Q 23Kaya, the sweet jam spread on breakfast toast in Singapore and Malaysia, is based on the milk of which plant?
Coconut
Q 14Which American jam giant began with a farmer selling apple butter from a horse-drawn wagon in Orrville, Ohio?
Smucker's
Smucker's started in 1897 when Jerome Smucker built a cider mill and, by the company's own account, used apples from trees planted by Johnny Appleseed.
Q 15Which tart red berry makes the jam that Scandinavians traditionally serve alongside meatballs?
Lingonberry
Lingonberry jam needs no added preservatives because the berries are naturally rich in benzoic acid, and the simplest version is just raw berries stirred with sugar.
Q 16Which French jam brand, launched to look home-made, is known for gingham lids and handwritten-style labels?
Bonne Maman
Bonne Maman is an affectionate French term for grandmother, and its owner Andros designed the jars to give a mass-produced jam a home-made feel.
Q 17Bergamot, a citrus sometimes made into marmalade, supplies the fragrant oil that flavours which tea?
Earl Grey
Earl Grey owes its perfume to bergamot oil, taken from a fruit cultivated in Italy that is probably a cross involving the bitter orange.
Q 18Which screw-topped glass jar, a home-canning staple, is named after the American tinsmith who patented it?
Mason jar
The Mason jar honours John Landis Mason, who later lost his rights to an improved design when a court ruled he had waited too long to patent it.
Q 19Chutney, the spiced fruit relish now preserved with sugar and vinegar, originated in which country?
India
India's chutneys were originally made fresh to eat soon afterwards; sugar and vinegar came in as preservatives once they were made to be sold.
Q 20Little Scarlet, the tiny crop behind one of Tiptree's most prized jams, is a variety of which fruit?
Strawberry
Strawberry jam left the Tiptree factory at up to ten tons a day by 1906, and the Essex firm still grows Little Scarlet on its own farms.
Coconut milk gives kaya its richness, and the Malay name itself means rich; pandan leaves often flavour it and tint the nyonya style a light green.
Q 24Robertson's Silver Shred, the pale sister of the brand's Golden Shred marmalade, is made from which citrus fruit?
Lemon
Lemon gives Silver Shred its pale colour; it joined the range in 1909, decades after Marion Robertson first turned a barrel of hard-to-sell bitter oranges into marmalade.
Q 25Which Scottish city, home of Keiller's marmalade, was long said to be built on jute, jam and journalism?
Dundee
Dundee's three Js were its big industries, and legend credits Janet Keiller with boiling up a storm-delayed cargo of bitter oranges, a tale food historians reject.
Q 26Which polar explorer's South Pole expedition carried Frank Cooper's marmalade all the way to Antarctica?
Robert Scott
Robert Scott's expedition took the marmalade south less than forty years after Sarah Cooper first made a batch of it to her own recipe.
Q 27Which berry, a cross involving raspberry, blackberry and loganberry, did Walter Knott popularise in California?
Boysenberry
Boysenberry honours grower Rudolph Boysen, from whose abandoned, weed-choked farm Knott rescued a few frail vines; his own berry stand grew into Knott's Berry Farm.
Q 28The phrase jam tomorrow, for a promise that never arrives, comes from which Lewis Carroll book?
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass has Alice offered jam on every day except the present one, a donnish joke about a rule of Latin grammar.
Q 29Jammie Dodgers, the jam-filled shortcake biscuits, are named after Roger the Dodger from which British comic?
The Beano
The Beano's schoolboy prankster lent his name to the biscuit, which Burton's bought in 1960 and went on to make at its Llantarnam factory.
Q 30Powidl, the dark Central European fruit butter cooked for hours with no added sugar, is made from which fruit?
Plums
Plums for powidl are picked as late as possible, ideally after the first frosts, so that they are sweet enough to need no added sugar at all.