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Dessert

Candied Citron Peel

A preserved rind of citron sweetened and dried in syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Candied Citron Peel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Soak the citron rind in brine for one week.

  2. Rinse the rind daily in fresh water for another week.

  3. Cut the rind into quarters and scrape out the pulp.

  4. Peel the rind and boil it in water with a little alum until tender.

  5. Soak the boiled rind overnight in fresh water.

Candy and dry

  1. In a pot, combine the sugar and enough water to cover the rind, then cook until soft.

  2. Dry the candied rind in the sun, allowing it to absorb all the syrup.

  3. Optionally, flavor the syrup with lemon.

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 rind
Forms the main body of the candied peel, becoming tender and absorbing the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the peel and, as syrup, replaces the rind's water to preserve it.
Alum
Helps the rind hold its firmness during boiling so it does not turn mushy.

The step that matters

Drying the candied rind in the sun. The rind must absorb the syrup fully before drying. Incomplete absorption leaves the peel wet and sticky, and it may spoil instead of keeping 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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