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 Chips
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peels
Cut oranges in half.
Squeeze the juice through a sieve.
Soak the orange peels in water overnight.
Boil the peels in the same water until tender.
Drain and slice the peels.
Candy the peels
Combine the sliced peels with the orange juice and an equal weight of sugar in a broad dish.
Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture thickens and the chips candy.
Dry
Set the chips in a cool room to dry for at least three weeks.
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
- Peel supplies the candied chips and juice provides liquid and citrus flavour for the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sugar forms the syrup that thickens and coats the peels, giving them sweetness and a candied set.
The step that matters
Cooking the peel and sugar mixture until it thickens. Sugar syrup must reach a concentration high enough to set firmly as it cools. Cooking too briefly leaves the chips wet and sticky, while overcooking can make them hard or cause the sugar to crystallise.
“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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