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Dessert

Orange Filling

A sweet orange-flavored filling made with egg, sugar, cornstarch, orange rind, orange juice, lemon juice, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Orange Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg thoroughly.

  2. In a bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch by sifting them together.

  3. Add the grated orange rind, orange juice, and lemon juice to the mixture.

  4. Mix thoroughly and pour in the boiling water.

  5. Cook while stirring continuously until it thickens slightly.

  6. Cool before using.

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. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Egg
Thickens and enriches the filling as it cooks, adding body and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the citrus juices.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats with the liquid, giving it a set consistency.
Orange juice
Provides the main liquid and bright orange flavour.

The step that matters

Cook while stirring continuously until it thickens slightly. Cornstarch only thickens once it heats in liquid and its starch granules swell. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom, giving a smooth, evenly thickened filling.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon. 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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