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LIMES, TO PRESERVE (another way)
Take a dozen limes, weigh them, and put aside double their weight in loaf sugar. Boil them in two or three waters until the rind is sufficiently tender for a fork or skewer to pierce it easily. Drain them, cut them into thin slices, carefully removing the pips, and put them into a deep jar. Boil the sugar to a clear syrup, and put half a pint of water with every pound and a quarter of sugar. Pour this syrup, when boiling, over the fruit; let it remain for two days. Turn the whole into a preserving-pan, boil for a quarter of an hour, then put the fruit into jars. Cover these securely, and be careful to store them in a cool, dry place.
A straightforward two-stage candied-peel preserve: blanch away the bitterness, then steep in heavy syrup before the final boil. The blanching is the part that decides whether the jar is pleasant or punishing.
- Change the water, and mean it"Two or three waters" means bringing the whole limes to a boil, draining, and covering with fresh boiling water — repeatedly. Limonin and the pith's bitter compounds leach out with each change, and skipping this leaves a preserve too bitter to eat.
- Tender before slicingTest with a skewer through the thickest part of the rind; it should meet no resistance. Rind that is still firm at this stage never softens afterwards, because sugar syrup sets the peel rather than tenderising it.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a hard cone and broken up as needed. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct equivalent; it was the purest sugar available, and less refined sugars would give a cloudier syrup.
- The proportionsA dozen limes runs roughly 1.5 to 2 lb, so double their weight is 3 to 4 lb of sugar. The syrup takes half a pint of water per 1.25 lb of sugar — about 10 fl oz to 1.25 lb, a genuinely heavy syrup.
- Why the two-day restPouring boiling syrup over the fruit and leaving it draws water out of the peel and sugar in, in stages. Rushing straight to the final boil shrivels and toughens the slices.
- The final boilA quarter of an hour at a full boil thickens the syrup; boiling much beyond it risks caramelising the sugar, and an over-boiled syrup may crystallise in the jar.
- JarsUse sterilised jars, fill while everything is hot, and seal at once. "Cover securely" in the original most likely meant a waxed disc and a tied cover; modern two-piece or lug lids do the job better.
- Yield and useUse -- Treat it as a marmalade-style preserve — on toast, spooned over rice pudding, or the slices lifted out to decorate a cake.
Preserving citrus in heavy syrup is one of the oldest sugar techniques in the English kitchen, older than jam as we know it, and it arrived with sugar itself as an expensive medicine-adjacent luxury. Limes reached British larders in quantity through the West Indies trade, and by the late nineteenth century "Dictionary" — when Cassell's was compiling its dictionary — they were also strongly associated with the Royal Navy's anti-scurvy ration, which is often said to lie behind the nickname "limey" for British sailors, though the route by which the term spread is uncertain. That a general household reference book carries two separate methods for preserving them suggests limes arrived seasonally and in quantity, and had to be dealt with before they spoiled. The double-weight sugar is not extravagance but preservation: at that concentration there is too little available water for spoilage organisms, which is why a cool dry cupboard was sufficient storage.