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Dessert

Lemon Marmalade

A preserved citrus spread made from lemon peel, juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Lemon Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Grate the lemon peel and remove the thick white inner skin.

  2. Quarter the lemons and remove the seeds.

  3. Chop the lemons into small pieces.

Make the marmalade

  1. Drain the juice over the sugar without pressing.

  2. Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves, adding a little water if needed.

  3. Boil and skim for 5-6 minutes.

  4. Add the boiled shreds and cook for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the chopped fruit and grated peel.

  6. Boil for 20 minutes more.

Jar and seal

  1. When cold, transfer to small jars and seal with waxed cloths.

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

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

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

Lemons
Supply the peel and juice that give the marmalade its bitter aroma and natural pectin for setting.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade, balances the bitterness, and helps it thicken and set as it boils.

The step that matters

Boil until the marmalade sets. Sugar, acid and pectin must reach a high enough concentration by boiling to gel. Stopping too early leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can make it stiff and dark.

“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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