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Pan-American Orangeade

A large batch of orangeade made with water, sugar, tartaric and citric acids, alcohol, orange extract, and food coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and orange 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 ↓

Pan-American Orangeade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a clean tub or barrel, combine 30 gallons of water and 35 pounds of granulated sugar.

  2. Add ⅛ ounce of tartaric acid and ⅛ ounce of citric acid.

  3. Stir in 1 teacup of alcohol and 1 teacup of pure orange extract.

  4. Mix well and add food coloring to your desired shade.

Serve

  1. Fill into a soda water cylinder and charge to 90 pounds pressure, or serve from large glass bowls with sliced oranges.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange 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

Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and body that balances the sharp acids.
Tartaric acid
Adds a sharp, tart sourness to the drink.
Citric acid
Adds a bright, tart sourness that supports the tartaric acid.
Pure orange extract
Supplies the main orange flavor and aroma.

The step that matters

Charging the cylinder to 90 pounds pressure. Pressure drives carbon dioxide into the liquid to make it fizzy. Too little pressure leaves the drink flat, and the cylinder must be handled carefully because it is under high pressure.

“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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