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Dessert

Citron Preserve

A preserve made from sliced citron, sugar, and lemon, boiled until thick.

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

Cook the citron

  1. Place the sliced citron in a preserving kettle and cover with water.

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the citron.

Make the syrup

  1. Add 2 pounds of sugar to the water.

  2. Boil until thick.

Combine and finish

  1. Return the citron to the kettle along with 4 sliced lemons.

  2. Boil for an additional 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the fruit.

  4. Boil the syrup until very thick.

  5. Pour the thick syrup over the fruit.

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 preserve, becoming tender as it simmers in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the syrup as it boils down, helping preserve the fruit.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until very thick. Sugar concentrates as water evaporates, and a syrup that is not boiled down enough stays thin and runny. Reaching a thick syrup is what makes the preserve set and keep.

“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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