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Dessert

Citron Preserves

A preserve made from citron, sugar, lemons, and water, boiled until thick and transparent.

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 Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the citron

  1. Cut the citron into thin slices and remove the outer peel.

  2. Place the citron in a kettle and cover with water.

  3. Boil until the citron can be pierced easily with a fork.

  4. Remove the citron and strain the water.

Make the syrup

  1. Return the water to the kettle and add ¾ pound of sugar and sliced lemons.

  2. Boil until the syrup thickens.

Finish the preserves

  1. Add the citron back to the kettle and boil until it becomes transparent.

  2. Avoid overcooking to prevent toughness.

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 preserves, becoming tender and then transparent as it cooks in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserves and, as it thickens into syrup, preserves the fruit and gives it a glossy finish.
Lemons
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Avoid overcooking the citron. Continued boiling toughens the fruit's tissue, so the citron can turn rubbery instead of tender and translucent. Stop once it becomes transparent.

“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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