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Candied Citron Melon
Follow the recipe given just above but slicing thicker, and when the melon has been removed from the syrup drain and place the cubes or strips in a heater or fruit-dryer or in the sun. When dry, after twenty-four hours dip again in the re-heated syrup and dry. This process must be repeated until the melon is sufficiently candied to keep by packing away in layers of oiled paper. On the care and length of process depends the success of the results.
A candying method rather than a fixed formula: the melon is repeatedly soaked in syrup and dried until it is saturated enough with sugar to keep at room temperature. The original leans on a preceding recipe for the syrup and first cooking, so a few gaps need filling.
- What citron melon isNot the citrus citron. Citrullus lanatus var. citroides, the preserving or stock melon, has hard white flesh with almost no flavour of its own, which is why it takes sugar and spice so readily. Seed catalogues still list it; failing that, the firm white rind of an underripe watermelon behaves the same way.
- "The recipe just above"That earlier method is not reproduced here; comparable recipes peel and seed the melon, cut it up, blanch until barely tender, then simmer it in a heavy syrup, sometimes with lemon, and let it stand. This entry directs a thicker cut — cubes or strips, so they survive repeated handling — and adds the repeated drying.
- Syrup strength matters more than timeThe point of the repetition is to raise the sugar concentration in the fruit in stages. The original says only to re-heat the syrup; in comparable candying methods it is boiled down a little or further sweetened between dips. Plunging fresh melon straight into a very heavy syrup shrivels and toughens it.
- "A heater"A warming oven or plate-warming closet — gentle, dry heat, not baking heat. A dehydrator on a low fruit setting is the nearest modern equivalent; an oven set to its lowest setting with the door propped works if you watch it. The sugar must not caramelise.
- Sun dryingOnly practical in hot, dry, breezy weather, on racks under cheesecloth, brought indoors before evening damp settles. In humid conditions the pieces will ferment or mould before they dry.
- How many roundsThe original declines to say, beyond a twenty-four-hour dry between dips; expect several cycles over a week or more. The fruit is done when it is translucent to the centre, firm and tacky rather than wet, and no longer weeps syrup after a day of rest.
- Oiled paperParchment. Layer the pieces so they do not touch, in a tin or jar with a tight lid, and keep them cool and dark.
- Storage checkUndercandied fruit is the failure mode — it looks finished, then moulds in the tin. Inspect after the first week; a white sugar bloom is harmless, fuzz or a sour smell is not.
Candied citron melon was an American answer to an expensive import. Recipes for fruitcake, mincemeat and Christmas breads called for candied citron, meaning the thick peel of Citrus medica, shipped in from the Mediterranean and priced accordingly. The citron melon "a hard-fleshed watermelon relative grown widely in the South and Midwest as stock feed and preserving fruit "was cheap, kept for months in the cellar, and took sugar and lemon well enough to stand in for the real thing in a dark, spiced cake. Such recipes treat the drier and the sun as interchangeable, and the closing line about care and length of process is honest about the method's weakness: there is no thermometer or test to consult, only judgement built up over several batches.