Why it works: Sugar and pine work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 309 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Marmalade of English Pines
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pare the rinds off the pines.
Remove any dark specks from the flesh.
Grate the pines on a fine grater.
Slice the grated pines thin and cut into dice.
Pound the pines in a stone or marble mortar until pulpy.
Weigh the pines.
Cook the marmalade
Heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.
Gradually stir in 14 ounces of sugar for every pound of fruit.
Boil until the mixture thickens and becomes transparent, about 15 minutes for small quantities.
Avoid placing the preserving pan flat on the fire to prevent caramelization.
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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Sugar + pinetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together309 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ripe english pines
- Provide the fruit flesh, pectin-rich pulp and bulk that set the marmalade.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps the mixture thicken and turn clear.
The step that matters
Boil gently while the sugar goes in. Sugar added to hot fruit can scorch on the pan base if the heat is too high. Gentle heat, with the pan kept off direct flame, lets the sugar dissolve and the mixture thicken without caramelizing.
“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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