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
Place the sliced citron in a preserving kettle and cover with water.
Boil for 1 hour, then remove the citron from the kettle.
Make the syrup
Add 2 pounds of sugar to the water and boil until thick.
Return the citron to the kettle along with 4 sliced lemons.
Boil for 20 minutes, then remove the fruit again.
Boil the syrup until very thick and pour it over the fruit.
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.
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Is the main fruit, giving the preserve its body and bulk once cooked until tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, as it boils down, thickens the syrup that coats the fruit.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the citron and sugar.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup until very thick. Sugar concentrates as water evaporates, and the syrup must reach a high sugar level to thicken and preserve the fruit. Stopping too early leaves a thin syrup that can spoil or fail to set.
“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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