Why it works: Orange and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Peel the oranges, removing all seeds and tough skin.
Cut the peel into small pieces, boil in cold water until tender.
The day before, soak the orange peel in water overnight.
Boil the soaked orange peel until soft, changing the water three times.
Cut the pulp of the oranges into small pieces.
Make the apple and syrup
Make a syrup with 1 pound sugar and 1 pint water.
Mix 1 pound of oranges (with peel) into the syrup and boil for 2 hours.
Weigh 6 pounds of apples, stew with a little water until soft, then set aside.
Run the apple pulp through a colander into a preserving kettle.
Add 6 pounds of sugar to the apple pulp and boil slowly, scraping the bottom constantly.
Combine and jar
In another kettle, simmer the orange peel with the apple pulp and 2 pounds of sugar.
When both mixtures are nearly done, combine them and cook until thick.
Cool in a bowl, then transfer to a glass jar with a screw top.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oranges
- Provide the bitter peel and pulp that give marmalade its characteristic flavour and pectin.
- Apples
- Add body and natural pectin, helping the marmalade thicken as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, at high concentration, helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Boiling the apple pulp with sugar. Sugar sticks and scorches on the bottom of a hot kettle. Scraping the bottom constantly and boiling slowly prevents burnt flavour and keeps the mixture even as it thickens.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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