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Citron Pickle

A preserved citron pickle made by boiling citron with alum, vinegar, sugar, and cassia buds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Citron Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the citron

  1. Pare the citron.

  2. Cut the citron into desired pieces.

  3. Boil the citron in water with ½ teaspoon of alum until tender.

  4. Drain the citron.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine 3 quarts of vinegar, 4 pounds of sugar, and ¼ pound of cassia buds.

  2. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the citron to the pot.

  4. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + cassiatop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Sugar + cassiatop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Citron
Forms the main body of the pickle and becomes tender and translucent when simmered.
Alum
Helps the citron stay firm during boiling, so the pieces keep their shape.
Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the pickle and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and helps build the thick syrup that coats the citron.
Cassia buds
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the citron in alum water until tender. Alum firms the citron's pectin-rich flesh. Boiling until just tender, then draining well, keeps the pieces firm rather than mushy once they simmer in the hot syrup.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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.

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