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Preserve

Citron Preserve

A preserve made from citron, water, sugar, and lemons, cooked until clear and candied.

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 Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the citron

  1. Cut the citron into small squares and remove all seeds.

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

  3. Cook until you can pierce it with a straw.

Make the preserve

  1. Strain the liquid and for every pint, add one pound of white sugar.

  2. Add four lemons, cut into small squares, to each batch of citron before boiling.

  3. Boil the mixture until it is clear and candied.

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 bulk of the preserve and turns tender and translucent as it candies.
White sugar
Sweetens the preserve and draws moisture out of the fruit, helping it set and keep.
Lemons
Adds acidity and bright flavor that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Boil until clear and candied. Sugar syrup must reach a high enough concentration to replace the fruit's water. Stopping too early leaves the citron cloudy and soft, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and darken the flavor.

“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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