Name: Orange Filling
Ingredients: Juice of 1 large ripe orange; 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon egg yolk

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 Filling

Ingredients

Juice of 1 large ripe orange
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon egg yolk

Directions

Combine the orange juice and sugar until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Stir until smooth and creamy.
Add the egg yolk and mix well.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,696 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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: Provides acidity and fresh citrus flavour, and its liquid helps dissolve the sugar into a spreadable filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and dissolves into the juice to give it body and a smooth texture.
Egg yolk: Adds richness and helps the filling become creamy and set when mixed in.