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 ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Brush and wash the oranges well.
Boil the oranges until the rind can be easily pierced with a pin.
Make the syrup
Soak the sugar and water in a preserving pan, then boil gently for about 1 hour until it becomes syrup, skimming well.
Let the syrup cool nearly, or the chips will harden.
Make the marmalade
Quarter the oranges, remove the seeds and center skin, and place the pulp in a dish.
Cut the rind into the finest possible shreds and weigh them.
Add the shreds and pulp to the nearly cold syrup.
Boil gently for 1 hour, stirring constantly.
Test a little on a saucer; it is done when it jellies.
Pot and store
Pour into clean, dry, warm pots, cover with vegetable parchment, label, and store in a cool, dry place.
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
- Supply the peel for bitter flavour and the pulp and pectin that help the marmalade set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set into a firm, spreadable jelly.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar into a syrup that carries the shredded rind and pulp.
The step that matters
Let the syrup cool nearly before adding the rind. Adding shreds to very hot syrup can make the peel chips harden and toughen. Cooling it nearly to cold keeps them tender and suspended in the jelly.
“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.