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 ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Pare half the oranges and cut the rind into shreds.
Boil the shreds in three waters until tender, then set aside.
Grate the rind of the remaining oranges, discarding the thick white inner skin.
Quarter the oranges and remove the seeds.
Chop the oranges into small pieces and drain the juice without pressing them over the sugar.
Cook the marmalade
Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves, adding a little water if the oranges are not very juicy.
Boil and skim for five to six minutes, then add the boiled shreds and cook for ten minutes.
Add the chopped fruit and grated peel, then boil for an additional twenty minutes.
Jar
When cool, transfer to small jars and seal with paper or cloths dipped in wax.
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
- Oranges
- Provide the fruit, peel and pectin that give marmalade its body and bitter flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens and, with boiling, helps the marmalade set and keeps it preserved.
The step that matters
Boil and skim before adding the shreds. Skimming removes foam that can cloud the marmalade and spoil its clarity. Boiling to a set requires enough sugar and heat, so the mixture must be cooked long enough to thicken before jarring.
“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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