Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the fruit
Cover the oranges with water and boil until the skin is soft enough to easily insert a pin.
When cool, thinly slice the peel and shred the pulp into small pieces.
Make the marmalade
For every pound of fruit, add 2 pounds of sugar, ½ cup of the boiling water, and the lemon juice.
Boil this mixture for about 1 hour, or until thick.
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 + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- The peel and pulp supply bitterness, aroma, and natural pectin for setting.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken into a spreadable set as it boils.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity, which helps the fruit's pectin form a gel and brightens the flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling until thick. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar and pectin so the marmalade sets. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can darken it and make it stiff.
“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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