[Sca-cooks] citrons

[johnna holloway]

Citron, citrus medica, has weak lemon flavor and
a thick rind. Fruit may be as large as a foot to
as small as big lemon in size. The rind is what is
used today, although the Italians did squeeze it
to produce a beverage known as acquacedrata in the
17th and 18th centuries. Native to NE India, spread
to Persia by the 6th century BC, from there to Babylon,
to Greece with the returning armies of Alexander. Early
attempts to grow it in the Mediterranean failed, but by
the 1st century AD they were being grown in Italy and
Greece. An odd variety is grown in China where it arrived
in the 4th century AD. It's called a Buddha's Foot and the
fruit is divided into seperate lobes. There has long been a
religious connection with the fruit and the Jewish Feast of
the Tabernacles uses it. Apicius includes it in his work.
It was important in early Arabic cuisine where the rind was
used and eventually candied. It is grown today in Italy, Greece,
Corsica, Morocco, Israel, and the U.S.It is the source of the
candied citron used in fruitcake mixtures.[see Alan Davidson's The
Oxford Companion to Food.]

Johnnae llyn Lewis
Johnna Holloway


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> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa asked:
> > Citron (what is this, specifically?): "Some eat citron cut up in cubes
> > with salt, oil and vinegar." p. 31