Why it works: Lime and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,332 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Lime Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the limes
Weigh the limes and set aside double their weight in loaf sugar.
Boil the limes until a pin or straw easily pierces the rind, changing the water once or twice.
When cold, slice the limes, removing the seeds, and place the slices in an earthen vessel.
Make the syrup and preserve
Boil the sugar with 2 ½ cups of water until it forms a clear syrup.
Pour the boiling syrup over the lime slices and let it stand for 48 hours.
Boil the mixture together for 10 to 15 minutes, then pour into pots.
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.
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Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,332 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Limes
- Provide the fruit, flavour and pectin-rich rind that gives the preserve its body and bitter aroma.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, at this high ratio, helps preserve the fruit and set its texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the limes until tender. The limes must be soft enough that a pin or straw pierces the rind easily. Boiling softens the bitter peel and pectin-rich tissue, and changing the water removes some bitterness; undercooked rind stays tough and bitter.
“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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