Name: The JusUce'^s Orange Syrup for Punch or Puddings
Ingredients: 1.5 pounds fine sugar; juice of fresh oranges

Why it works: Sugar and orange 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 ↓

The JusUce'^s Orange Syrup for Punch or Puddings

Ingredients

1.5 pounds fine sugar
juice of fresh oranges

Directions

Squeeze the oranges and strain the juice from the pulp into a large pot.
Boil the juice with 1.5 pounds of fine sugar.
Skim the mixture well and let it stand until cold.
Bottle the syrup and cork it tightly.

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.

Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange 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

Fine sugar: Dissolves into the juice and, once boiled, thickens it into a syrup that keeps well.
Orange juice: Provides the bright citrus flavor and acidity that define 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.