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Dessert

Preserved Oranges

A method of preserving oranges in a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Preserved Oranges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oranges

  1. Grate the oranges lightly and score them with a knife, but do not cut deep.

  2. Soak the oranges in cold water for 3 days, changing the water 2-3 times daily.

  3. Tie the oranges in a cloth and boil them until a pin can easily penetrate the skin.

Make the syrup

  1. For the syrup, combine 1 pint of water for each pound of sugar in a pot and bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes.

  2. Strain the syrup through muslin.

Preserve and check

  1. Add the oranges until the syrup jellies and turns yellow.

  2. Check the syrup by cooling a small amount; it should not be too stiff.

  3. Turn the oranges in the syrup to ensure even coating.

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.

  1. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Provide the fruit and bitter peel that are candied and preserved in the syrup.
White sugar
Forms the thick syrup that preserves the fruit and sets it into a jelly-like coating.
Water
Dissolves the sugar into syrup and carries it into the fruit as it cooks.

The step that matters

Checking the syrup consistency. Sugar syrup thickens and sets as it cools, so if it is too stiff the oranges may end up hard and sugary, and if too thin it will not preserve them well.

“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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