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
Cover the orange peel with cold water and bring to a boil.
Cook until soft.
Drain the peel.
Remove the white portion with a spoon.
Cut the yellow portion into thin strips with scissors.
Candy and coat
Boil ½ cup of water and 1 cup of sugar until it threads when dropped from a spoon.
Cook the strips in the syrup for 5 minutes.
Drain and dip in fine granulated sugar.
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
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup that candies the peel and gives it sweetness and a firm, glossy coating.
- Orange peel
- Provides the main body and bitter citrus aroma of the candy once the white pith is removed.
The step that matters
Removing the white pith. The white portion is bitter and tough, so it must be scraped away before candying. Leaving it in makes the strips taste bitter and chewy after they are coated.
“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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