Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Seville Orange Paste Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut the Seville oranges in half and squeeze the juice into a brown pan.
Boil the orange peels in water until soft, then scoop out the insides.
Pound the peels in a mortar.
Peel and chop the apples, then place them in a preserving pan.
Add the orange juice and enough water to cover the apples, then boil until it becomes marmalade.
Pass the mixture through a sieve using a spoon.
Also sieve the pounded orange peels.
Mix the apple and orange mixtures together.
Make the paste
In another pan, boil sugar until it nearly caramelizes.
Mix the caramelized sugar with the jam.
Stir the mixture over the fire for 10 minutes.
Pour the paste into heart-shaped molds.
Dry and finish
Place the molds in a hot oven until they can be removed easily.
Transfer the cakes to a sieve and dry them in the oven for one day.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + syruptop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together742 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Seville oranges
- Provide the juice and peel that give the paste its bitter, aromatic flavour and pectin for setting.
- Apples
- Add natural pectin and body, helping the paste thicken and hold its shape.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, once caramelized, adds depth and colour while helping it set.
The step that matters
Stirring the paste over the fire. The paste is thick and sugar-rich, so it can scorch on the base of the pan if not stirred constantly. Scorching gives a burnt flavour and dark specks throughout the paste.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, syrup. 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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