[Sca-cooks] Citron

[Harris Mark.S-rsve60]

Anahita asked:
>>>>>>
OK, OK, i finally gave in and bought a Cthulhoid "Hand of Buddha" 
citron at the Berkeley Bowl yesterday. They smell so absolutely 
wonderful and look so positively Lovecraftian, i could no longer 
resist...

So, besides citron preserves made with sugar, what other 
possibilities are there?
<<<<<<<

Well doing a search on the Florilegium finds several possibilities.

From:
raw-fruit-vg-msg  (13K)  2/25/02    Evidence that raw fruits and vegetables were 
                                       eaten in period.
>>>>
...and went through my copy of Milham's
translation of Platina for references to uncooked fruit and veggies.

Citron: "Some eat citron cut up in cubes with salt, oil and vinegar." p. 31
<<<<

There is a citron tart recipe in:
tarts-msg         (72K)  3/20/03    Period small, open-topped, shallow pies.

There is a citron drink recipe in the jalabs-msg file:
>>>>>
Syrup of Citron Leaves: Way of Making It

Take fifty leaves and remove the dust on them with a cloth, then cover them
all with water in a pot and cook it until the strength comes out. Then take
the clean part of it and add a ratl of sugar. The bag: half an ûqiya each
of aloe stems, Chinese cinnamon, and cloves. Cook all this until it becomes
good to drink. Drink one ûqiya with three of water. Its benefits: it cheers
the heart with much gaiety, fortifies the internal organs, and softens the
bowels gently; it is extraordinary.
<<<<<

But I doubt you have fifty leaves on this one fruit. :-) This is another one of those jalab recipes, which I mentioned a while back, where some of the ingredients are hard to find or unknown. There is another beverage using citron leaves as well, "The Great Cheering Syrup: Way of Making It".

There is a recipe in Platina using citron in a chicken dish. There is discussion in this file as to whether this is a citron or lemon:
>>>>>>
De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudinae, Book VI, Chapter 17--

"17. Pullus Assus
Pullum bene deplumatum exinanitum et lotum assabis; asso atque in
patinam imposito, antequam refrigerat, aut succum mali citrei aut
acrestam cum aqua rosacea saccharo ac cinnamo bene trito infundes,
convivisque appones."

Mary Ella Millham's translation:

"17. Roast Chicken
Roast a chicken which is well plucked, gutted and washed, and when the
roast is placed in a dish before it cools, put lemon juice or verjuice
on it with rose water, sugar and well-ground cinnamon, and serve it to
your guests."
<<<<<<<

Since you only have one citron, I imagine you would rather use it for something else than this recipe where you can use lemon juice or verjuice, but I've mentioned it here for general knowledge.

Stefan