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Dessert

Turkish Delight

A gelatinous confection made with sugar, water, orange juice, lemon juice, and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Turkish Delight

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine base

  1. Let the gelatine stand in the orange juice until it absorbs the liquid.

  2. Stir the sugar and water over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the softened gelatine and heat to boiling point.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes after boiling starts, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Set and unmold

  1. Add the lemon juice and chopped cherries, then pour into a pan that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Let stand in a cool, dry place overnight.

  3. To unmold, sift confectioners' sugar over the paste.

  4. Wet a sharp knife, loosen the candy at the edge of the pan, and gently pull the paste out onto a board dusted with confectioners' sugar.

  5. Cut the paste into strips and then into squares with a sharp knife, rolling each piece in sugar.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable, jelly-like paste.
Sugar
Sweetens and, as it cooks, helps give the paste its firm, chewy body.
Orange juice
Adds liquid and citrus flavour, and softens the gelatine before cooking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the paste.
Candied cherries
Add chewy pieces of fruit and extra sweetness throughout the paste.

The step that matters

Boiling for 20 minutes after boiling starts. The paste sets by concentrating the sugar and gelatine as water evaporates. Boiling too briefly leaves it too soft to set, while boiling too long can make it overly stiff.

“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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