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 ↓
Preserved Orange Chips
Ingredients
Directions
Cut a round piece of cork or bung to fit inside the orange peel to keep it steady.
Using a sharp knife, cut the orange peel into fine, long chips.
Boil the chips in plenty of water until tender, but do not mash them.
Transfer the chips to cold water and change the water the next day.
After two days in water, drain the chips on a coarse sieve.
Place the drained chips in a tub, earthen pan, or jar.
Pour boiling hot clarified sugar over the chips to cover them well.
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
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