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 Maemalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut the oranges very fine and remove the seeds.
Combine the oranges with 3 pints of water and let it stand overnight.
Cook over three days
On the first day, boil the mixture until tender.
On the second day, repeat the boiling process.
On the third day, boil the mixture with sugar, using 1¼ lbs. of sugar for every pint of fruit.
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
- Sweet oranges
- Provide the main bulk, sweetness and fruit flavour of the marmalade.
- Seville oranges
- Add the sharp acidity and bitter aroma that give marmalade its character.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set to a spreadable texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar in on the third day. Sugar added to fruit that is already tender must dissolve fully and reach a rolling boil to set properly. Undercooked sugar leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can make it dark and hard.
“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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