A sandwich tucked deep inside a red, brimmed hat: that's where Paddington produces his in the 2022 Platinum Jubilee sketch, telling Queen Elizabeth II he keeps one "for emergencies." The sandwich itself is just buttered bread and orange marmalade. Thick white bread, cut into triangles, takes five minutes.
The sandwich in the hat
Paddington first arrived in Michael Bond's A Bear Called Paddington, published on 13 October 1958. The Guardian counts 29 Paddington books by Bond, and credits the marmalade sandwiches and hard stares, along with that first story, for making him perhaps the UK's best-loved fictional character.
The sketch put the sandwich in front of a far bigger audience. It opened the BBC's Party at the Palace on 4 June 2022, and in NPR's account the Queen answers the bear by unlatching her handbag and taking out a sandwich of her own, to eat later. The BBC's clip sums it up as both of them confessing to carrying one around.
Three months later, after the Queen's death, mourners left Paddington toys and marmalade sandwiches among the flowers outside Buckingham Palace. So many arrived that the Royal Parks asked people to stop, partly because many of the items contained plastics that don't break down. The BBC traced the whole association to that one sketch.
How to make Paddington's marmalade sandwich
Makes 2 sandwiches · Prep 5 min · No cooking · Ready in 5 min
Ingredients
- 4 thick slices of white sandwich bread
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) soft salted butter, or to taste
- 4 tablespoons (60 ml) orange marmalade, or to taste (we'd reach for Navel Orange Marmalade)
Method
- Take the butter out of the fridge early so it spreads without tearing the bread.
- Butter one side of each slice.
- Spread the marmalade over the butter on all 4 slices.
- Press the slices together in pairs, marmalade sides facing in.
- Leave the crusts on, or trim them if you prefer.
- Cut each sandwich into triangles and serve.
Notes
A thick slice of bread holds more marmalade without soaking through; a thin one works but gives a flatter sandwich. The same build also works on hot buttered toast.
Which marmalade goes in it?
The traditional British choice is a bitter Seville orange marmalade: in Britain, marmalade is usually made from that fruit, and it makes a sharp sandwich with plenty of bitterness from the peel; a sweet orange marmalade makes a gentler one. Our Navel is made from Redlands-grown Navel oranges, a crop with its own marmalade history. It lists honey, warm spice and soft peel among its tasting notes. For more bite, the Duncan grapefruit jar is bold and lightly tannic. You can compare them in the marmalade collection.
Why marmalade, and never anything else?
Bond treated the preference as fixed. When Paddington appeared in a 2007 Marmite advert and people complained that the bear had switched spreads, Bond told BBC Radio 4 that Paddington would never convert, because children's characters are built in stone. His daughter, Karen Jankel, explained that in the advert Paddington only tries Marmite.
In March 2010, once a Marmite contract had expired, Robertson's, Britain's biggest marmalade maker, put Paddington on its Golden Shred jars, and The Independent reported the reason: marmalade sales had been falling for years and were bought mostly by people over 45. The paper put British spending on marmalade at £55m a year.
Photo by Mario Mesaglio on Unsplash.
