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 ↓
Orange Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Squeeze the juice from the oranges.
Boil the peels in 3-4 waters with a little salt to reduce bitterness.
Remove the white pith from the peels and pound them finely in a mortar with part of the juice.
Pass the mixture through a sieve into a preserving pan.
Add the remaining juice and heat until it reduces to a marmalade.
Add the sugar
Weigh the mixture and for each pound, add ¾ pound of loaf sugar.
Clarify the sugar and boil until it reaches the blow stage.
Mix the sugar with the paste and evaporate over gentle heat until it reaches a good consistency.
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 or sweet oranges
- Provide the peel, pith and juice that form the marmalade's body and bitter flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it concentrates, helps it set to a spreadable consistency.
The step that matters
Boiling the peels in several changes of water. Pectin and bitter compounds sit in the peel; repeated boiling in fresh water draws out bitterness so the marmalade tastes balanced rather than harsh.
“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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