Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rind
Peel 30 oranges.
Cut the rind into small pieces.
Place the rind in cold water.
Boil until tender.
Change the water three times.
Grate the rind of the remaining oranges.
Remove the white inner skin.
Prepare the fruit
Cut the fruit into pieces.
Remove the seeds.
Weigh the oranges and allow 1 pound of sugar for each pound of fruit.
Pour the juice from the cut oranges over the sugar.
Press to extract as much juice as possible.
Cook the marmalade
Heat slowly to dissolve the sugar.
Add a little water if needed.
Boil for 5 minutes. Skim.
Add the boiled and sliced rind.
Cook for 10 minutes longer.
Add the fruit and grated peel.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Put into glass jars while hot. Seal.
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 + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Oranges
- Provide the bitter peel and juicy fruit that give marmalade its flavour and body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it thickens, helps it set and preserves it.
- Water
- Softens the rind during boiling and helps dissolve the sugar.
The step that matters
Boil the fruit for 20 minutes. Pectin in the rind and fruit needs sustained boiling with sugar and acid to set. Too short a boil leaves the marmalade runny, and too long can darken and toughen it.
“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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