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 Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rind
Cut off the thin yellow rind of the oranges and spread it on a platter.
Set the platter in a warm, dry place to dry for about 48 hours.
Make the sugar
Once dry, place half of the rind in a mortar with 1 cup of granulated sugar.
Pound the mixture to a powder and rub it through a fine sieve.
Return the coarse parts left in the sieve to the mortar and pound them again.
Repeat with the remaining rind and another cup of sugar.
Use
Use 1 tablespoon of this sugar to flavor a quart of custard or cream.
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
- Their thin yellow rind supplies the aromatic oils that flavor the sugar.
- Granulated sugar
- Sugar draws the oil out of the dried rind and carries its aroma as it is pounded.
The step that matters
Pounding and sieving the rind. The rind must be fully dry before it is pounded, or it will clump and resist breaking down. Returning the coarse bits to the mortar matters because larger pieces hold flavor unevenly and leave a gritty texture. Thorough grinding spreads the orange oil evenly through the sugar.
“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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