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To Preserve

A method for preserving oranges and green pippins in clarified syrup with apple jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Soak the fruit in spring water for 2 days, changing the water twice daily.

  2. Boil the fruit until tender on a slow fire, ensuring it is covered.

Make the syrup and preserve

  1. In a pot, combine 2 pounds of sugar and 1 pint of water with the orange juice; boil to create a syrup and clarify it.

  2. Skim the syrup well and let it cool.

  3. Boil the fruit in the syrup for half an hour; repeat daily until the fruit is clear.

Make the apple jelly

  1. Pare and core the green pippins, then boil them in water until the flavor is strong.

  2. Gently press the pippins with a spoon and strain the water through a jelly bag until clear.

  3. To the strained water, add 1 pound of sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice; boil to create a strong syrup.

Jar and cover

  1. Drain the syrup from the fruit and place each orange in a jar with the hole facing upwards.

  2. Pour the apple jelly over the oranges and cover with brandy paper.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + appletop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Double-refined sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, when boiled, thickens the syrup that preserves the fruit.
Green pippins
Their natural pectin and tart flavor set the apple jelly that covers the fruit.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma to the apple jelly syrup, balancing its sweetness.

The step that matters

Clarifying the syrup and skimming it well. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would cloud the syrup and the preserve. Repeating the boil daily lets sugar slowly penetrate the fruit, so it becomes clear and keeps well.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, apple, brandy. 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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