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 ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Slice the oranges very thin and add them to 3 quarts of cold water. Let it stand overnight.
The next morning, cook the mixture slowly for 45 minutes. Let it cool.
Cook the marmalade
Measure the mixture. For every quart of fruit and juice, add 2.5 pounds of sugar.
Return the mixture to the heat and cook slowly for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
When the mixture is about halfway done, add the sliced lemons.
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.
-
Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Navel oranges
- Supply the peel and pulp that give marmalade its bitter flavour and pectin.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and extra pectin that help the marmalade set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with the fruit's acid and pectin, helps it gel.
The step that matters
Cooking after the sugar is added. Once the sugar goes in, the mixture must simmer long enough to reach a concentration where pectin and acid let it gel. Too little cooking leaves it runny, while too much can darken and turn it stiff or caramelised.
“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.
More orange marmalade recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.