Next to a Eureka lemon marmalade, Meyer lemon marmalade tastes rounder and more floral, with less sourness, less bitterness from the peel, and a faint mandarin note at the finish. The Eureka jar is the sharper, cleaner lemon. The difference starts in the fruit: the Meyer is a lower-acid citrus hybrid with a thin, perfumed rind.
Is a Meyer lemon a real lemon?
Not quite; it's a hybrid. Frank N. Meyer, a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture, found it growing as a potted ornamental near Beijing and brought it to the United States in 1908, according to the Citrus Variety Collection at UC Riverside. The collection describes it as a probable lemon and orange cross. A 2016 genetic study in Annals of Botany (Curk and colleagues) went further and placed it as a citron crossed with a mandarin–pummelo hybrid, though the exact parents are still unknown.
That mandarin side shows in the jar. We describe our Meyer Lemon Marmalade as floral lemon with soft acidity, finishing on a delicate mandarin peel note.
Less acid, less pith
Meyer juice is less acid. Julia Morton's Fruits of Warm Climates, published online by Purdue University, calls Meyer pulp "moderately acid with medium lemon flavor" and Eureka pulp "very acid." UC Riverside's notes agree on the Eureka, whose flesh it lists as very acidic.
The peel differs as well. Morton describes the Meyer's as light orange and dotted with small oil glands, and calls the Eureka's medium-thick. The white pith under a lemon's zest is the bitter part, and a 2009 NPR piece on the fruit points out that on a Meyer it is thin enough to eat the whole lemon, peel included. Lower acid also lets marmalade makers use less sugar, the same piece notes.
The trade-off is less bite: if you want a lemon that cuts hard through butter or a rich cheese, reach for the Eureka Lemon Marmalade instead. On our sweet-to-bitter scale it sits seventh of eight, with only Duncan grapefruit further toward bitter.
Is Meyer lemon marmalade bitter?
Somewhat, from the peel, though it sits mid-range. We rank all eight of our jars on a sweet-to-bitter scale, with Mandarin as the sweetest and Duncan grapefruit as the most bitter. Meyer lemon lands fifth, after Valencia orange and before Melogold grapefruit and Eureka lemon. So it is more bitter than our four orange and mandarin jars and gentler than the Eureka and both grapefruits. If orange marmalade reads as too sweet to you and a sharp lemon one as too much, start with this jar.
Where our Meyer lemons grow
Our Meyers are grown by a small family operation near Victoria Avenue in Riverside. Meyer lemon trees flower on and off all year, but UC Riverside records the crop as coming mainly in winter. That local, small-grower pattern is typical for the Meyer. UC Riverside's historical notes say it never became a commercial fresh-market lemon because the fruit was too soft and juicy to ship and store without heavy losses, so it stayed a variety of local importance, grown mostly as a dooryard tree. The original introductions also turned out to carry the tristeza virus, and the Improved Meyer trees now sold are virus-free. The jar is 11 oz (312 g), and nothing goes into it but cane sugar, Meyer lemons and water.
How to use Meyer lemon marmalade
Because it carries less acid, Meyer lemon marmalade works where you want lemon flavor without much pucker. Whisk a spoonful into olive oil and vinegar for a salad dressing, brush it over vegetables as they roast, or spoon it over ice cream, cheesecake or warm toast.
On a cheese board, our pairing notes match it with fresh goat cheese, ricotta and burrata. With brie and triple-crèmes, either of our lemon marmalades brings the acid that cuts through the butterfat, and baked brie with lemon marmalade is one of the holiday appetizers we suggest.
For drinks, Meyer suits lighter spirits and sparkling cocktails, and it makes an unusual old fashioned when a bar spoon replaces the sugar cube. Lemon marmalade brings sourness along with the sweetness, so ease back on any fresh lemon juice in the recipe. Our marmalade cocktails page has the measures.
When you open a jar, expect a paler, more see-through set than an orange marmalade; lemon marmalades usually are. We explain how judges read clarity and color in a marmalade elsewhere on the blog.
Photo by Tania Melnyczuk on Unsplash.
