To Preserve Citrons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the citrons
Pare the outer skin off the citrons and cut them into quarters, removing the middle.
Soak the pieces in salt and water for 4-5 hours.
Rinse the citrons in fresh water until the saltiness is gone.
Boil a small lump of alum in water and scald the citrons in the weak alum-water.
Make the syrup and preserve
Simmer the citrons with layers of green vine leaves for 2 hours.
Make a syrup by boiling 1 pint of water with each pound of loaf sugar until clear.
Add the citrons to the syrup and boil slowly until soft enough to pierce with a straw.
Place the citrons in a large dish and set them in the sun to harden.
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
What each ingredient does
- Citrons
- Provide the main fruit, whose peel and flesh become tender and candied in the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in syrup, preserves it by drawing out moisture.
- Alum
- Firms the citron tissue so it holds its shape during long simmering.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out bitterness and moisture during the initial soak.
The step that matters
Boiling in the syrup until soft. Boiling slowly lets sugar penetrate the fruit gradually, so it becomes translucent and preserved. Boiling too hard or too fast can break the fruit apart and make the syrup cloudy or uneven.
“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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