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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Juice and cook
Pare the oranges, squeeze them, and strain the juice from the pulp.
Combine the juice and sugar in a pot, boil, and skim until the mixture becomes creamy.
Strain and bottle
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag and let it cool.
Once cool, pour into bottles and cork tightly.
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
- Orange juice
- Supplies the flavor and acidity, and the liquid in which the sugar dissolves.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, as it concentrates on boiling, thickens it into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling and skimming until creamy. Sugar concentration controls the syrup's thickness, so boiling must be stopped at the right point. Overheating can caramelize the sugar and darken the flavor. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the syrup.
“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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