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 ↓
Cantelopes or Musk-melons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cantaloupes
Take very small cantaloupes before they are ripe.
Shave a thin paring off the whole outside.
Cut out a small piece or plug about an inch square, and through it extract all the seeds, etc. from the middle.
Return the plugs to the hole from whence you took them, and secure them with a needle and thread, or by tying a small string round the cantaloupe.
Lay the cantaloupes for four or five hours in salt and water.
Put them into spring water to extract the salt, changing the water till you find it salt no longer.
Scald them in weak alum-water.
Make the syrup and cook
Make a syrup in the proportion of a pint of water to a pound of loaf-sugar, and boil the cantaloupes in it till a straw will go through them.
Take them out, and set them in the sun to harden.
Prepare some fine ripe oranges, paring off the yellow rind very thin, and cutting it into slips, and then laying it in scalding water to extract the bitterness.
Cut the oranges into pieces; allow a pint of water to each orange, and boil them to a pulp.
Afterwards strain them, and allow to each pint of the liquid, a pound of the best loaf-sugar, and stir in a little beaten white of egg; one white to four pounds of sugar. This is for the second syrup.
Boil the peel in it, skimming it well.
When the peel is soft, take it all out; for if left among the cantaloupes, it will communicate to it too strong a taste of the orange.
Jar and store
Put the cantaloupes into your jars, and pour over them the hot syrup.
Cover them closely, and keep them in a dry cool place.
Notes
Large cantalopes may be prepared for preserving (after you have taken off the outer rind) by cutting them into pieces according to the natural divisions with which they are fluted.
This receipt for preserving cantalopes whole, will do very well for green lemons or limes, substituting lemon-peel and lemon-juice for that of oranges in the second syrup.
You may use some of the first syrup to boil up the pulp of the orange or lemons that has been left.
It will make a sort of marmalade, that is very good for colds.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Orange | 1 medium (131g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cantaloupes (in the method)
- Form the main body of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as they absorb syrup.
- Loaf-sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, at high concentration, preserves the fruit by drawing out water.
- Oranges
- Supply the flavour of the second syrup and the bitter peel, which is cooked to soft.
- White of egg
- Stirred into the orange syrup so that impurities rise and can be skimmed off.
- Alum-water
- Firms the cantaloupe flesh so it holds its shape during long simmering.
The step that matters
Boiling the cantaloupes in syrup until a straw goes through. Cooking must be slow enough for sugar to replace water gradually; boiling too hard can toughen or break the fruit, while stopping early leaves it firm and underpreserved.
“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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