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 ↓
Jujube Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gum base
Dissolve the gum Senegal in water, then add the orange-flower water.
Pour the mixture into a clean preserving pan over low heat and stir continuously until it evaporates to a moderate consistency.
Add the sugar and set
Add the clarified loaf sugar boiled to a candy height, and stir until the mixture evaporates to a good consistency.
Pour into flat tins with edges about ¼ inch deep.
Place in a warm area or stove to dry.
Once sufficiently hard, cut into small diamonds.
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
- Gum senegal
- Forms the gel structure that gives the paste its firm, chewy body as it dries.
- Clarified loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once boiled to candy height, helps the paste set firm when cooled.
- Orange-flower water
- Adds a delicate floral aroma to the paste.
The step that matters
Stir until the mixture evaporates to a good consistency. Evaporating the mixture to the right concentration controls how firm the paste becomes as it dries. Too little reduction leaves it soft and sticky, while over-reducing makes it brittle.
“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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