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To Pickle Bitter Oranges

Bitter oranges pickled in vinegar with coriander and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,635 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Pickle Bitter Oranges

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the bitter oranges in a jar and cover them with good vinegar.

  2. Beat together a handful of coriander and a handful of cinnamon, then add to the jar.

  3. After a few days, pour off the vinegar, boil it, let it cool, and then cover the oranges for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + coriandertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Bitter orange + cinnamontop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Bitter orange + vinegartop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 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 main fruit flavour and firm peel that softens and absorbs the pickling liquid.
Good vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, adding sharp acidity that keeps the fruit tangy and stable.
Coriander
Adds a bright, citrusy aroma that flavours the pickling liquid and the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that infuses into the vinegar and the oranges.

Swap the bitter orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, coriander, cinnamon):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Bitter orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, coriander, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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