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 ↓
To Make Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut the oranges in half and remove the pulp and juice into a pan. Pick out all the skins and seeds.
Boil the rinds in hard water until very tender, changing the water three times.
Pound the rinds in a mortar, then add the juice and pulp.
Make and pot the marmalade
In a preserving pan, combine the mixture with double the weight of loaf sugar.
Set over low heat and boil gently for 40 minutes.
Pour into pots, cover with brandy paper, and tie down securely.
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 + 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, pulp and pectin that give marmalade its characteristic flavour and set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set and keep by drawing out water.
The step that matters
Boil gently over low heat. Boiling too hard for too long can darken the sugar and dull the fresh citrus flavour, and overcooking can make the set too firm. A gentle boil lets the mixture thicken evenly.
“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
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 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.