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 ↓
Marmalade, Orange, Easy Way of Making
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Select sound Seville oranges in March or April, checking for bruises or blemishes.
Place the whole oranges in a large preserving pan with plenty of water.
Stew the oranges until soft, changing the water two or three times.
Once tender, pour off the water.
Peel the rind.
Remove the seeds.
Make the marmalade
Weigh 1½ pounds of lump sugar for every pound of pulp.
Add a small cupful of the reserved boiling water.
Boil the syrup for a few minutes to clear it.
Add the pulp.
Cut the rind into thin strips.
Add the rind strips after the pulp has simmered for ten minutes.
Boil everything together for another ten minutes.
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.
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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
- Seville oranges
- Their rind and pulp supply the bitter flavour and natural pectin that help the marmalade set.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, at high concentration, helps it gel and preserves it.
The step that matters
Boil the rind with the pulp. Boiling must be long enough for the pectin in the rind and pulp to dissolve and set the marmalade, but not so long that the flavour turns dull. Adding the rind after ten minutes of simmering lets it soften without losing its texture.
“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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