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Dessert

Citron Preserve

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

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 pieces about 3 to 4 inches in size.

  2. Place the citron in a preserving kettle.

  3. Cover the citron with water.

  4. Cook until it can be pierced with a straw.

  5. Remove the citron.

Make the syrup

  1. Add sugar in the proportion of 1½ pounds for each pint of juice.

  2. Cook the juice until the scum quits rising.

  3. Return the citron to the kettle.

  4. Boil until clear, for over 1 hour.

  5. Remove the citron.

  6. Boil the juice for 15 minutes.

  7. Slice 3 lemons. Remove only the seeds. Boil for 15 minutes.

Fill and seal

  1. Fill jars half full of citron.

  2. Top with hot juice.

  3. Seal while hot.

  4. Place a spoon in each jar while filling.

  5. Set a damp napkin under the jars.

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 main body of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as it cooks in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at this concentration, helps it set and keep.
Lemons
Add acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet citron flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the juice until the scum quits rising. Skimming foam during this stage removes impurities so the syrup stays clear. Stopping too early leaves cloudiness in the finished preserve.

“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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