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Drink

Orangeade

A citrus drink made from orange rinds, sugar syrup, and fresh orange juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Orangeade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the infusion

  1. Steep the yellow rinds of 6 China oranges and 2 Seville oranges in 1 quart of boiling water for 5-6 hours, covered.

  2. Make a syrup by dissolving 1 pound of sugar in 3 pints of water.

Combine and strain

  1. Mix the infusion and syrup together.

  2. Squeeze in the juice of 12 China oranges and the 2 Seville oranges.

  3. Stir well and strain through a jelly bag.

  4. If desired, add a little orange-flower water and capillary syrup for extra sweetness.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Their yellow rinds and juice add a bitter, aromatic edge to the drink.
China oranges
Their rinds and juice supply the main orange aroma and sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the citrus acidity.

The step that matters

Steeping the rinds. The rinds hold most of the oil that gives orangeade its aroma. Steeping them in hot water for several hours draws out that flavour, but leaving them too long or uncovered can let it weaken or turn bitter.

Swap the orange

The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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