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To Preserve Oranges in Jelly

This recipe preserves Seville oranges in a sugar syrup and jelly, using green pippins for flavor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Preserve Oranges in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oranges

  1. Cut a hole at the stalk of the oranges.

  2. Scoop out the pulp.

  3. Tie the oranges in muslin.

  4. Soak them in spring water for two days, changing the water twice daily.

  5. Boil the oranges in muslin until tender.

  6. Add hot water as needed to keep covered.

  7. Weigh the oranges.

Make the syrup

  1. For every pound, use two pounds of sugar and one pint of water.

  2. Boil the sugar and water with the orange juice to make syrup.

  3. Skim well.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Add the oranges to the syrup and boil for half an hour.

  6. Repeat daily for two to three days if not clear.

Make the green pippin jelly

  1. Prepare green pippins by peeling and coring them.

  2. Boil until the water is strong with apple flavor without stirring.

  3. Strain the water through a jelly bag until clear.

  4. Add one pound of sugar and lemon juice for every pint of water, boiling to a strong jelly.

Pot and seal

  1. Drain the oranges from the syrup.

  2. Place them in jars with holes upward.

  3. Pour the jelly over them.

  4. Cover with brandy papers.

  5. Tie securely.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 and pulp that become the preserved fruit and its flavor.
Double refined sugar
Sweetens and, at high concentration, helps the syrup and jelly set and keep.
Green pippins
Their natural pectin and acid help the water set into a firm jelly.
Juice of a lemon
Adds acidity that supports pectin setting and brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling the green pippin water to a strong jelly. Apples must be boiled long enough to extract pectin, and the sugar must then be boiled to the right concentration. Undercooked jelly stays runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or cloudy.

“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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