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Dessert

Oranges in Syrup

A compote of peeled oranges soaked in a sugar syrup with liqueur, garnished with myrtle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Oranges in Syrup

Why it works: Orange and myrtle work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Oranges in Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the oranges, removing all white pith and thready parts without damaging the skin.

Make the syrup and soak

  1. Boil the sugar in water to create a clear syrup.

  2. Add the liqueur to the syrup and pour it over the oranges.

  3. Let the oranges sit for 3-4 hours, then turn them over.

  4. Boil the syrup again and pour it over the oranges once more.

Serve

  1. Serve in a compote dish and garnish with myrtle.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + myrtletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + myrtletop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together32 recipes

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 fruit that is softened and flavored by the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Dissolves into the water to form the syrup, adding sweetness and body.
Maraschino or other liqueur
Adds aroma and a distinct flavor to the syrup soaking the oranges.

The step that matters

Removing the pith. White pith is bitter, and any left on the fruit will carry that bitterness into the compote. Peeling carefully without tearing the skin keeps the fruit intact and the flavor clean.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, myrtle):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Apricotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, myrtle. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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