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.
Squeeze the juice into a brown pan.
Boil the orange peels in water until soft.
Scoop out the insides of the peels.
Pound the peels in a mortar.
Pare and cut the apples into pieces.
Place the apple pieces in a preserving pan.
Add the orange juice and enough water to cover the apples.
Make the paste
Boil the mixture until it becomes marmalade.
Pass the mixture through a sieve using a spoon, along with the pounded orange peels.
Mix the apple and orange mixtures together.
Boil sugar in another pan until it is nearly caramel.
Mix the caramelized sugar with the jam and stir well.
Cook over the fire for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Mould and dry
Fill heart-shaped molds or any shape you prefer with the paste.
Place the molds on pewter sheets or plates.
Put the molds in a hot oven until they release easily.
Remove from molds and place in a sieve.
Dry the paste in the oven for a 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).
-
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 characteristic sharp, aromatic flavour.
- Apples
- Contribute natural pectin that helps the mixture thicken and set into a firm paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, once caramelised, adds colour and a deeper flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it becomes marmalade. Fruit pectin only sets well when the mixture is cooked to the right concentration of sugar and acid. Undercooking leaves a runny paste that will not hold its shape when moulded and dried.
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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