Why it works: Orange and corn work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 586 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Orange Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine the orange juice and enough water to make 1½ cups of liquid in the inner part of a double boiler.
Bring to a boil, then stir in the corn starch mixed with a little cold water.
Place the inner part back in the outer cup of the double boiler and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the egg whites
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff and dry.
Pour the hot sauce over the egg whites, beating constantly to keep it smooth.
Return the mixture to the double boiler and stir constantly until creamy and the egg is set.
Serve
Serve hot over steamed or baked pudding.
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 + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,484 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Orange and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,696 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the orange liquid into a smooth, glossy sauce as it heats.
- Egg whites
- Set with gentle heat to give the sauce a light, creamy body.
- Orange juice
- Provides the bright citrus flavour and most of the liquid in the sauce.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot sauce over the egg whites. Beating constantly while adding the hot sauce keeps the egg whites from scrambling in lumps and helps them blend into a smooth mixture before the final gentle cooking sets the egg.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Vanillafits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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