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 ↓
Sugared Orange Peel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Measure the cut orange peel by cupfuls and add the same amount of sugar.
Boil the peel in cold water for 20 minutes.
Pour off the water, cover with hot water, and boil for another 20 minutes.
Pour off the water again, cover with boiling water, and boil for 20 more minutes.
Candy and store
Pour off the water, add the sugar, and just enough water to dissolve the sugar.
Boil slowly until all the syrup is absorbed by the peel.
Dip pieces of the peel in sugar and store in glass jars.
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
- Provides the candied body and bitter citrus aroma that the sugar syrup soaks into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as syrup, replaces the water in the peel so it turns translucent and firm.
The step that matters
Boil slowly until all the syrup is absorbed by the peel. Boiling gently keeps the syrup from crystallizing or scorching while sugar slowly penetrates the peel. Rapid boiling can burn the sugar or leave the peel sticky and under-candied.
“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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