Why it works: Sugar and orange 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 ↓
Candied Citrons
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the citron slices in running water to remove salt.
Blanch the slices in plain water, keeping it near boiling but not boiling.
Cool the slices in cold running water for at least 6 hours to remove bitterness.
Place the slices in stone jars and pour over hot syrup at 14° Beaume.
Drain and reboil the syrup every two days, increasing the strength until it reaches 28° Beaume.
Leave three days between each draining until the syrup reaches 33° Beaume.
For whole citrons, cut a round hole at each end and remove the seeds.
Blanch the top and bottom pieces, then coat them in sugar to seal the fruit after processing.
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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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and orange 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
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