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Dessert

Orange Wine

A baked dessert of orange juice, noyeau and cake crumbs topped with meringue and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Wine

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Mix the orange juice, noyeau, and cake crumbs in a bowl.

  2. Turn the mixture into a buttered soufflé dish.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.

  2. Spread the meringue over the soufflé.

  3. Dredge with castor sugar.

  4. Garnish with cherries.

  5. Return to the oven until the meringue is lightly browned.

  6. Serve warm.

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. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Egg white
Whipped into a foam that gives the topping its light, airy structure.
Cake crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the base body so it holds together when baked.
Noyeau
Adds a distinct almond and cherry aroma and flavor to the base.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavor to the base.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks. Egg white must be whipped until it holds firm peaks to trap air. Under-whipped meringue will weep and sink, while over-whipped meringue turns grainy and dry.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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