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Lime Marmalade

A preserved lime preserve made by simmering sliced limes with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the limes

  1. Place the limes in an enamel saucepan.

  2. Cover the saucepan with cold water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Drain the water.

  5. Roll each lime in a clean cloth to extract oil.

  6. Slice the limes thinly, discarding the seeds.

  7. Measure 18 tablespoons of the sliced fruit.

  8. Add 1.5 pints of cold water to the fruit.

  9. Simmer over low heat until the fruit is tender.

  10. Let the mixture sit overnight.

Make the marmalade

  1. Add 1 pound of sugar to each portion of fruit.

  2. Place the mixture in an enamel or earthenware bowl.

  3. Simmer gently, removing any scum.

  4. Place a small amount on a plate.

  5. Check if it sets; if so, it is ready.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the marmalade into small clean dry jars.

  2. Cover the jars with white paper.

  3. Seal the jars with egg white.

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. Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Green limes
Provide the bitter peel, pulp and natural pectin that give the marmalade its flavour and set.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps it set and keep.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, removing any scum. Scum is impurities rising from the fruit. Skimming it keeps the marmalade clear and clean-tasting. Gentle heat avoids scorching the sugar and the fruit as the mixture thickens toward setting.

“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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