Why it works: Bitter orange and sugar work together. They rank in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. The science ↓
To Preserve Oranges Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Cut the oranges with an orange razor, no deeper than the yellow rind, in the shape of flowers and leaves.
Soak the oranges in enough water to cover them, mixed with the salt, and place a plate on top to keep them submerged for 2 days.
Change the water and soak for another 2 days.
Boil the oranges in cold water until the skin can be easily pierced with a pin.
Make the syrup and preserve
Clarify 1 pound of sugar for each orange.
Make a small hole in the stalk end of each orange and carefully remove the pulp and seeds with a teaspoon.
Place the oranges in a pot so they do not touch each other.
Fill the oranges with syrup and pour the remaining syrup over them.
Once the syrup is cold, place a plate on the fruit to keep them submerged for 2 days.
Remove the oranges one by one and pour out the syrup.
Strain the syrup, boil it, and skim off any foam.
After boiling for about 6 minutes, let it cool slightly, then pour it over the oranges.
Let the oranges sit for 4 days.
If the oranges are clear and the syrup is thick, squeeze in the juice of 4 bitter oranges to prevent candying and enhance flavor.
Boil the syrup again and skim it.
Add the oranges back one by one and boil for an additional 5 minutes.
Carefully remove the oranges, place them in jars, and pour the syrup over them, ensuring they are well covered.
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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Bitter orange + sugartop 41% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bitter oranges
- Provide the bitter aromatic peel and juice that give the preserve its flavor.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out bitterness from the peel during the initial soaking.
- Sugar
- Forms a thick syrup that preserves the fruit and gives it sweetness.
- Orange juice
- Adds acidity that helps prevent candying and brightens the flavor.
The step that matters
Soaking in the syrup over several days. Sugar draws water out of the peel and replaces it with syrup, so the fruit becomes translucent and preserved. Syrup that is too weak or too hot can let the fruit ferment or candy unevenly, so the concentration and cooling must be right.
“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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