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 ↓
Another Way to Make Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Wash the oranges.
Remove any defective parts.
Place the oranges in a saucepan with plenty of cold water and cover tightly.
Boil until a straw or pin can easily pierce them.
Remove the oranges.
Cut them into quarters.
Pick out the seeds.
Slice them thinly, skin and all.
Make the marmalade
Break the sugar into small pieces.
Dissolve the sugar in ¼ pint of water over heat.
After boiling for a few minutes, remove from heat.
Add ¼ pint of cold water to scum off any refuse.
Return to heat and remove any additional scum.
Add the sliced oranges.
Boil for 15 minutes.
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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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
- Oranges
- Sliced whole with the skin, they supply bitterness, aroma and pectin that helps the marmalade set.
- Fine loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it concentrates, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar fully before adding the oranges. Sugar left undissolved can recrystallise or leave a gritty texture in the finished marmalade. Dissolving it completely over gentle heat gives a smooth, clear set.
“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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