According to legend, marzipan made its first appearance at the pharmacy in Tallinn’s townhall square, created by accident in the 1400s. “Originally made as a medicine, marzipan has evolved over time and now can be made with a variety of flavours, colours and shapes,” the Paradise of the North blog says.
A pink marzipan pig is a traditional Christmas item symbolising good luck, writes Karin Annus Kärner in Estonian Tastes and Traditions. Our family tried her recipe for martsipan this Christmas Eve – jõululaupäeval – and it’s not as easy as one might think (see photo below).
Combine a lightly beaten egg white with ground almonds and icing sugar, some drops of almond essence and that’s marzipan. Quite sticky, so we rolled it into a log, wrapped in clingfilm, and cooled in the fridge, however, not long enough. Our family made a good effort at painting our martsipanisead, and learned a lesson or two along the way. Next time, dilute the food colouring before painting. Pour the paint into dishes to avoid bottles falling over and making a mess. And, perhaps, cool the marzipan overnight. The marzipan painters of Tallinn are to be admired.
Is Estonia the origin of marzipan?
The city of Lübeck in northern Germany vies with Tallinn as the first to produce marzipan where the sweet almond paste remains a traditional delicacy. Both ports were Hanseatic League towns during the 1400s, and Baltic trade in almonds and sugar from the near East saw marzipan popular elsewhere in northern Europe. The former Prussian city of Königsberg (today: Kaliningrad) also has a marzipan tradition.
Marzipan figurines are offered as gifts on St Nicholas (6 December) in Belgium and the Netherlands, according to Wikipedia. In Germany, “lucky pig” figures are gifted on New Year’s Eve. Denmark, Sweden and Norway also have marzipan pig traditions. And it’s hard to imagine an English Christmas cake without a covering of marzipan; a similar tradition exists in Finland.
Lübeck takes marzipan so seriously that the city gained Protected Geographical Status from the EU for it, as has Toledo. Marzipan is also popular in Spain, as well as in Portugal, France, Switzerland and Austria. While some ascribe a Turkish origin to marzipan, Hungary and Italy also make this claim.
Like most baking and other treats worth eating in Europe, returning Crusaders brought with them traditions from the Holy Land and Antioch (present-day Turkey in Asia Minor). That’s probably as close as anyone will get to the truth of marzipan.
The name seems to derive from Latin, martius panis, or “bread of March”. In Romeo and Juliet (late 1500s), Shakespeare mentions “marchpane”. Or it could derive from the Italian, marzapane, which has an earlier origin, and simply means “pastry bread”. This form crept into German, and then English.
Martsipan can hardly be an originally Estonian word, in that case, and if it is borrowed from German, then the history of marzipan at the Raeapteek in Vana Tallinn seems pretty clear. Even so, Estonia has its centuries-old tradition of marzipan painting, well documented in 2023 by Estonian World.
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