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Dessert

Orange Mould

A chilled orange dessert made with orange juice, water, sugar, gelatin, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Remove the orange rind as thinly as possible.

  2. Strain the orange juice into a saucepan.

  3. Mix the strained juice with the water to make 1 pint.

Make the mould

  1. Add the gelatin and sugar.

  2. Gently bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Simmer for a few minutes.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Add the beaten eggs.

  6. Cook for a few more minutes.

  7. Cool again.

  8. Strain into a wetted mould.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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
Provide the juice, giving the mould its flavour and fresh acidity.
Gelatin
Sets the strained liquid into a firm mould that holds its shape when turned out.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the orange juice.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the mixture once it has cooled.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs. Eggs scramble if added to a very hot liquid. The mixture is let cool before the eggs go in, then cooked gently so the eggs thicken it smoothly. Straining afterwards removes any small cooked specks before the mould sets.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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