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 Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Grate the rind of the orange and squeeze the juice, discarding the seeds.
Add a pinch of tartaric acid to the juice.
Stir in confectioners' sugar until the mixture is stiff enough to form into small marble-sized balls.
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.
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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
- Orange
- The juice supplies liquid and flavor, and the grated rind adds aromatic oils.
- Confectioners' sugar
- Sweetens the juice and thickens it into a mixture that can be shaped into balls.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharpness that brightens the orange flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring in the confectioners' sugar. Sugar must be added gradually until the mixture just holds its shape. Too little leaves the balls soft and sticky, while too much makes them dry and crumbly.
“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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