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Lemon Fickle

A preserved lemon dish made by salting, vinegar, spices, and oven stewing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Lemon Fickle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lemons

  1. Cut or score the lemons into four parts, not quite through the rind.

  2. Cover the lemons with salt and let them sit for a week.

  3. After a week, remove the lemons from the salt and rinse them.

Pickle and bake

  1. Place the lemons in a jar and cover them with vinegar, adding saffron, mace, and clove.

  2. Cover the jar and stew the lemons in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 3 hours or until tender.

  3. Remove the lemons and add fresh vinegar to the jar.

  4. Boil white peppercorns and cayenne in the vinegar.

  5. Cut the lemons into eight pieces.

  6. Pour the vinegar over them.

  7. Seal the jar.

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 + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Saffron + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Their rind and pulp supply the main flavour and the tender, sliceable texture once stewed.
Salt
Draws out moisture from the lemons and firms the rind during the week of curing.
Good vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, adding sharp acidity that keeps the lemons stable in the jar.

The step that matters

Stewing the lemons until tender. Stewing softens the rind and pith so the lemons become tender and pliable. Stopping too early leaves them tough, while overcooking can make them mushy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, vinegar, saffron, clove, pepper):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, vinegar, saffron, clove, pepper. 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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