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 ↓
Candied Orange Peel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Select large, thick-skinned oranges.
Remove the skin in quarter sections.
Cook the peel in a large quantity of water with the cover off, changing the water three times, until very tender.
Drain the peel.
Candy the peel
Make a syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.
When the sugar is dissolved, drop in the orange peel.
Cook slowly until the syrup is nearly evaporated.
Pick out the pieces of peel.
Finish and dry
Roll them in granulated sugar.
Dry on waxed paper.
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.
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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
- Oranges
- The thick peel supplies the bulk of the candy, becoming chewy and sweet after simmering in syrup.
- Sugar
- Sugar in the syrup penetrates the peel, preserving it and giving it sweetness and a glossy, firm texture.
The step that matters
Cook the peel until very tender before candying. Bitter pith and tough peel soften only with repeated simmering in fresh water. Changing the water removes bitterness, and the peel must be fully tender before the syrup step, because sugar syrup hardens the surface and prevents further softening.
“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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