> Just curious, how large is a lemon - and what are we buying in the shops?
> In a 18th century recipe (as I remember it) there is mention of three types
> of "lemons".
> The largest is a "Citron" (which is funny because lemon is "citron" in
> Swedish; and French of course), then somewhat smaller is the "Lemon", and
> the smallest one is the "Lime". So what are the lemons we buy in the shop?
> Lemons or Citrons?

When I was a kid in New Zealand, there were two kinds of lemons,
about equally common: "Mayer" lemons (with rather thin skin, about
the size of a tennis ball) and "Lisbon" lemons (about the size of
a baseball, with the extra volume occupied by pith). Lemons sold
in the UK are variants of the Mayer type, I haven't seen a Lisbon
for many years.

I think the Mayer is relatively recent, so the 18th century one
would probably have been closer to a Lisbon.

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