The American Citron

History

The American Citron takes the rind of a watermelon "not too ripe," cuts it small, and simmers it gently for four hours in a syrup of two pounds of loaf sugar and a pint of water until it candies into a firm, translucent sweetmeat. The name points to what it imitates: true citron, the thick white rind of the citron fruit, which is cooked in sugar and candied as succade for cakes and confections. That citron was an imported article, and watermelon rind served as a local substitute for it, the everyday and otherwise-discarded rind standing in for the imported peel. Candied citron was a fixture of holiday fruitcakes, the kind of baking such a homemade citron could stock a household toward.

Candying watermelon rind was not unique to Simmons; boiling chunks of rind with sugar is a preserve tradition in its own right. Her method is strikingly plain beside later ones, which pare the rind to its white part, soak it overnight in lime or salt water, and add ginger and lemon before cooking it until clear; Simmons asks only for a gentle four-hour boil in sugar syrup. What the recipe leaves unsaid is as telling as what it sets down: it names no flavoring, specifies no particular melon beyond a watermelon "not too ripe," and never states how the finished citron was meant to be used, the cake or pudding it was bound for left for a cook already to know.

Ingredients

• rind of a large watermelon
• 2 pound loaf sugar
• 1 pint water

Instructions

1. Cut the rind of a large, not-too-ripe watermelon into small pieces.
2. Put the rind with two pounds of loaf sugar and one pint of water into a kettle.
3. Boil gently for four hours.
4. Put into pots for use.