Why it works: Lime and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,332 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Lime Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the limes
Weigh the limes and set aside double their weight in sugar.
Boil the limes until a pin or straw can easily pierce them, changing the water once or twice.
When cold, slice the limes and remove the seeds.
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar with 1 pint of water for every 2.5 pounds of sugar until it forms a clear syrup.
Steep and cook
Pour the boiling syrup over the lime slices and let it stand for two days and nights.
Boil the mixture together for 10 to 15 minutes, then pour into pots.
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.
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Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,332 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Limes
- Provide the fruit, peel and pulp that form the body and bitter-sour flavor of the preserve.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit by drawing out water.
The step that matters
Boil the limes until a pin or straw can easily pierce them. Boiling softens the thick peel and pith so it becomes tender enough to eat. Changing the water removes some bitterness. Undercooked peel stays tough, while overcooked fruit falls apart.
“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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