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Orange Syrup

A sweet syrup made from orange juice and sugar, used as a sauce or drink.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Orange Syrup

Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Orange Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Squeeze the juice from the oranges through a sieve.

  2. For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of white sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture slowly for 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that rises.

  4. Once cooled, bottle the syrup.

Serve

  1. To make a sauce, mix 2 tablespoons of syrup with melted butter.

  2. For a drink, mix 3 tablespoons of syrup in a glass of ice water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Ripe thin-skinned oranges
Provide the juice that the syrup is built on, giving it its fruity flavour.
White sugar
Sweetens the juice and, once boiled, thickens it into a syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly, skimming the foam. Foam that rises during boiling carries impurities and dissolved proteins. Skimming it off keeps the syrup clear and prevents off flavours. Boiling slowly stops the sugar from scorching while the liquid reduces.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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