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 ↓
Seville Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Place any quantity of Seville oranges in a large earthenware pan and cover with boiling water.
Soak for 10 minutes.
Cut the rind into four equal parts.
Remove the pulp.
Pass the rind through a machine or cut it into strips.
Boil the rind until tender, changing the water once or twice.
Strain the rind through a sieve.
Boil the pulp with a little water.
Rub the pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Make the marmalade
Mix the pulp and rind together.
Weigh the mixture.
Add an equal weight of sugar.
Boil on a brisk fire, testing for doneness as you would for jam.
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
- Provide the bitter peel and pectin-rich pulp that give marmalade its flavour and set.
- Best loaf or crystal sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil on a brisk fire, testing for doneness as you would for jam. Sugar and pectin only gel once enough water has evaporated and the mixture reaches the setting point. Undercooked marmalade stays runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dark.
“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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