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 ↓
Scotch Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Thinly cut off the rind of the Seville oranges and shred it finely.
Place the shreds in a bag and boil for 2 hours.
Prepare the pulp
Remove the white skin from the oranges.
Cut the oranges in half.
Remove all seeds.
Put the pulp and juice into a basin.
Add the water used for boiling the peels to the pulp and juice.
Strain the mixture.
Make the marmalade
For every pound of fruit, add 1½ pounds of finely beaten loaf sugar.
Boil the mixture together for 30 minutes.
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
- Seville oranges
- Supply the pectin and acidity that help the marmalade set and give its sharp flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps the mixture gel as it boils.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture together for 30 minutes. The sugar, acid and pectin only form a firm gel once the mixture reaches the setting point. Boiling too briefly leaves the marmalade runny, while boiling too long can darken it and dull its flavour.
“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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