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Dessert

Candied Pomelo Peel

A sweet candied peel made by boiling pomelo peel with salt, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Candied Pomelo Peel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peel

  1. Slice and peel the pomelo.

  2. Cover the peel with 1 quart of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of salt. Let it sit overnight.

  3. Drain the peel.

  4. Place it in a saucepan, covering it with fresh water. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  5. Drain again. Add cold water. Boil until tender.

Make the candied peel

  1. Weigh the peel.

  2. Add an equal weight of sugar and 1 cup of water for each pound of peel. Boil gently for 1 hour with the saucepan covered.

  3. Remove the cover. Let it simmer until the syrup is fully absorbed, being careful not to burn it.

Dry and store

  1. Spread the candied peel on a platter. Let it dry for 24 hours or until it feels fairly dry.

  2. Roll each piece in fine granulated sugar, shaking off excess to prevent caking. Let stand for a few hours to dry.

  3. Store in a covered jar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pomelo peel
Forms the candy itself, becoming tender and translucent as it cooks in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the peel and, as the syrup is absorbed, gives the finished candy its firm, preserved texture.
Salt
Softens and draws bitterness from the peel during the overnight soak.

The step that matters

Simmering until the syrup is absorbed. Once the cover is off, the syrup thickens and can scorch on the pan bottom, giving a bitter, burnt taste. Gentle heat lets the sugar penetrate the peel and become a glossy, dry-feeling candy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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