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Dessert

American Citron

A preserved citron made by boiling with lemon rind and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Melon and lemon work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 362 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

American Citron

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the citron

  1. Pare and cut the citron-melons into four thick quarters.

  2. Weigh the citron and place it in a large bowl overnight.

  3. Prepare weak alum water with a small piece of alum per quart of water.

  4. Wash each piece of citron in the alum water for 30 minutes.

  5. Drain the citron and place it in a preserving kettle with enough water to cover it.

Cook and syrup

  1. Add the grated rind of a large lemon to the kettle.

  2. Boil slowly until the citron is tender enough to pierce with a needle.

  3. If it boils dry, add more cold water.

  4. Remove each piece with a fork and spread on a dish.

  5. Strain and measure the liquid, adding 1 pound of sugar for each pint.

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. Melon + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Melon + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together796 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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-melons
Form the bulk of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as they cook.
Alum
Firms the citron so its flesh holds shape during long simmering.
Double-refined loaf sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the cooking liquid into a syrup.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic oils and a bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until tender. Gentle simmering softens the thick citron evenly without breaking it apart. A hard boil can cook the outside to mush before the centre softens, and letting the pan boil dry scorches the fruit.

Swap the melon

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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