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 ↓
Seville Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Cut the oranges in half and squeeze out the juice through a sieve.
Boil the peels in water until tender, then drain and scoop out the pulp.
Cut the peels into pieces and combine them with the juice in a mortar.
Pound the mixture well and strain it through a fine sieve.
Make the marmalade
Clarify the sugar and boil it until it reaches the 'Feather' stage.
Remove from heat and add the orange pulp, then boil again until a jelly forms.
To test, dip a spatula into the marmalade; it should drop like jelly.
Place the finished marmalade in deep pots and store on a dry shelf.
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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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
- Seville oranges
- Provide the bitter peel, juice and pectin that give marmalade its flavour and set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, once boiled, helps it thicken into a jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling until a jelly forms. Sugar and fruit pectin must be boiled to the right concentration to set. Too little boiling leaves the marmalade runny, while overboiling can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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