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 Straws
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Soak orange peel in a weak brine for 3 to 4 days, changing the water daily.
Scrape off as much of the inner white skin as possible and cut the peel into narrow strips.
Place the strips in a pot with enough water to cover and boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
Drain the strips and repeat the boiling process.
After draining again, return the strips to the pot with ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water.
Candy and finish
Cook slowly until the syrup is nearly absorbed by the orange peel.
Remove the strips with a silver fork and place them on waxed paper sprinkled with sugar.
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
- Orange peel
- Forms the candied strips themselves, with its bitter pith softened by brining and boiling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as syrup, is absorbed into it to make the strips candied.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the syrup is nearly absorbed. Cooking gently keeps the sugar syrup from scorching or crystallizing, and letting it reduce to near absorption leaves the peel glossy and candied rather than wet or burnt.
“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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