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 oranges in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
Boil the orange peels in water until soft.
Scoop out the insides of the boiled peels.
Pound the peels in a mortar.
Pare the apples and cut them into pieces.
Place the apple pieces in a preserving pan.
Add the orange juice and enough water to cover the apples.
Boil the mixture until it becomes marmalade.
Pass the apple mixture through a sieve using a spoon.
Pass the pounded orange peels through a sieve using a spoon.
Mix the apple and orange mixtures together.
Make the paste
Boil sugar until it is nearly caramel.
Mix the caramelized sugar with the jam and stir well.
Fill heart-shaped molds with the paste.
Place the filled molds on plates.
Bake and dry
Put the molds in a hot oven.
Let the molds stand until they can be removed easily without the jam running.
Remove the cakes from the oven.
Place the cakes in a sieve.
Return the cakes to the oven until completely dry, leaving them 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).
-
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 natural pectin.
- Apples
- Add extra pectin so the mixture sets into a firm paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, once caramelised, adds colour and a deeper flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling the apple and orange mixture into marmalade. Pectin in the fruit only sets properly when enough water has cooked off and the sugar and acid are balanced. Under-boiled fruit stays runny, so the paste will not hold its shape in the molds.
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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