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 Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Grate the rind of the orange and squeeze the juice, discarding the seeds.
Add a pinch of tartaric acid to the juice.
Stir in confectioners' sugar until the mixture is stiff enough to form small balls the size of a marble.
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
- Supplies the juice for tang and the grated rind for fragrant citrus aroma.
- Confectioners' sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, stiffening the juice into a mixture that holds its shape.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds a sharp, sour bite that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
The step that matters
Stiffening the mixture with sugar. Add the sugar gradually. Juice can only take up so much sugar, so too little leaves the mixture runny and too much makes it dry and crumbly. Stop when it is stiff enough to roll into balls that hold their shape.
“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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