Skip to main content
Dessert

Preserved Citron or Watermelon Rind

A preserved rind made by soaking in vinegar, sugar, spices, and lemon, then boiling to create a sweet syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Preserved Citron or Watermelon Rind

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Pare off the green skin and remove the soft inner part, leaving only the hard white rind.

  2. Cut the rind into strips about 4 inches long.

  3. Pour 1 pint of vinegar over the rind strips and let sit overnight.

  4. Drain the rind on a clean board to dry each piece.

Make the syrup

  1. For every 2 pounds of rind, add 1 lemon, 1 stick of cinnamon, 4-6 cloves, and a small piece of blanched ginger root.

  2. Add 1 ½ pounds of sugar for every 2 pounds of rind and boil all together for about 3 hours.

  3. Remove the rind with a perforated skimmer and boil the syrup until thick.

Finish

  1. Pour the thick syrup over the rind and boil again for 15 minutes the next day, removing all lemon seeds.

  2. Cut the lemon into thick slices and add to the mixture.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Provides the firm white flesh that holds its shape during long simmering.
Sugar
Sweetens the rind and, as it thickens into syrup, preserves it.
Vinegar
Acidity that softens and flavours the rind before cooking.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup until thick. Sugar must reach a high enough concentration to preserve the rind; boiling too briefly leaves a thin syrup that may spoil. Removing the rind first lets the syrup reduce without overcooking the pieces.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, sugar):

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes