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Dessert

Orange Marmalade

A preserve made from equal parts oranges and sugar, boiled with peel and pulp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Quarter and peel the oranges, removing the thick inner skin from the peel.

  2. Boil the peel in clear water until tender, changing the water once.

  3. Remove seeds and white stringy parts from the pulp.

  4. Cut the pulp finely.

  5. Drain the tender peel in a colander.

  6. Cut the drained peel into fine shreds.

Make the marmalade

  1. Place the pulp in a pot with a little water and boil for a few moments.

  2. Add the sugar and shredded peel.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer the marmalade into small jars.

  2. Press a paper down on the fruit and tie another over the top.

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 + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Oranges
Provide the peel and pulp, which supply the bitter flavor and pectin that help the marmalade set.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps the marmalade thicken and set.
Water
Softens the peel during boiling and loosens the pulp so it cooks evenly.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, stirring often. Sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on the base of the pot. Frequent stirring prevents burning and lets the mixture reach a thick, set consistency evenly.

“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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