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Dessert

Marmalade

A fruit preserve made from plums, oranges, lemon, sugar, raisins, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Remove stones from the plums.

  2. Chop the oranges and lemon.

Cook the marmalade

  1. Combine plums, oranges, lemon, sugar, and raisins in a pot.

  2. Cook until thick.

  3. Add the chopped nuts and cook for a few more minutes.

Jar

  1. Pour into glasses and seal.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Plum + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the bulk of the fruit and natural pectin that helps the marmalade set.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken as the mixture cooks down.
Oranges
Add citrus acidity and aromatic peel oils that give the marmalade its flavor.
Lemon
Adds extra acidity that brightens the flavor and supports setting.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the marmalade.
Nuts
Add crunch and a toasted, rich flavor against the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. Sugar and fruit pectin only set properly once enough water has evaporated and the mixture reaches the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavor.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, orange, lemon, sugar, raisin):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, orange, lemon, sugar, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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