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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Grate the peel from 4 oranges and set it aside.
Carefully peel the remaining oranges, removing the inner white skin and yellow peel.
Slice the oranges and remove the seeds.
Put the fruit and grated peel in a porcelain or enamel saucepan.
Make the marmalade
Boil steadily until the pulp is reduced to a smooth mass.
Remove from heat and rub through a clean colander to preserve color.
Stir in the sugar and return to the fire.
Boil rapidly, stirring constantly for 1 hour or until thick.
Jar
While warm, pour into small jars but do not cover until cold.
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
- Sweet ripe oranges
- Provide the fruit pulp and peel that form the body and bitter-sweet flavor of the marmalade.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it boils down, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil rapidly and stir constantly after adding the sugar. Sugar boiled with fruit pectin and acid thickens into a gel as water evaporates. Without constant stirring the sugar can scorch on the pan bottom, and without enough boiling the marmalade stays runny.
“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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