[Sca-cooks] citrons

[Stefan li Rous]

Odriana vander Brugghe asked:
 >>>
Odd question, i've always understood citron to be specifically
lemon.  Does
candied lime have a different name or is it under the catchall of
"citron"?
<<<

The citron is a totally different fruit.

 From the following file in the FOOD-FRUIT section of the Florilegium:
Period-Fruit-art  (60K)  1/13/02    "Fruit of Period Times" by Baron
                                        Akim Yaroslavich.

 >>>
CITRUS FRUITS
Citrus is a large family of fruits which came from China and northern  
India. Of them, the Citron (citrus medica) was the first to reach  
Mediterranean Europe through Persia and Palestine in the 5th and 4th  
centuries B.C. (72). It was grown for its fragrant peel and used for  
religious and medicinal purposes until the 2nd century A.D. (73),  
when it began to be grown in Italy, Greece and Corsica. Culinary use  
of the peel began with late Roman cooking. The introduction of sugar  
by the Arabs allowed citron peel to be candied, which remains as its  
usual modern use. The juice is weakly lemon-flavoured and became  
popular in the late 16th century through the 18th as a Italian drink  
called "acquacedrata" (74).
<<<

You can find some period text specifically on candying citrons in  
this file in the FOOD-SWEETS section:
candied-peels-msg (52K)  6/19/04    Candied fruit peels. A late  
period treat.

Using the search engine for the site will turn up a number of other  
citations in beverages and food recipes.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****