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Preserve

Citron Preserve

A preserve made from citron fruit, water, sugar, and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Citron Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the citron

  1. Cut the citron into thin slices, about 2 inches long, and weigh it.

  2. Place the citron in a preserving kettle and cover with water.

  3. Boil for 1 hour.

Make the syrup

  1. Remove the citron and add 1 pound of sugar for every pound of citron to the water.

  2. Boil until thick.

Combine and finish

  1. Add the citron back to the kettle along with 2 sliced lemons for each pound of fruit.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the fruit and boil the syrup until very thick.

  4. Pour the syrup over the fruit.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Citron
Forms the bulk of the preserve and provides its firm, chewy texture after long boiling.
Sugar
Thickens the syrup and preserves the fruit by drawing out water and inhibiting spoilage.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until very thick. Sugar concentration must rise high enough to thicken the syrup and preserve the fruit. Under-boiling leaves a thin syrup that spoils more easily and does not set well.

“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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