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 ↓
Syrup of Orange-peel
Ingredients
Directions
Make the infusion
Pour boiling water over the orange rind in a covered container.
Let it stand for 12 hours.
Strain the mixture.
Make the syrup
Boil the strained liquid with the powdered sugar until it becomes a syrup.
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
- Seville orange rind
- Supplies the bitter aromatic oils that flavour the infused liquid.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once dissolved and boiled, the thick body of the syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the strained liquid with the sugar until it becomes a syrup. Sugar must dissolve fully and the liquid must reduce enough to thicken into syrup. Too little boiling leaves it thin and prone to spoiling, while overboiling can darken and over-thicken it.
“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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