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Dessert

Orange Mould

A gelatinous dessert made from orange rind, juice, milk, sugar, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Orange Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the orange rind as thinly as possible and cut it into fine strips.

  2. Strain the orange juice, mix it with milk to make a total of 1 pint, and add the gelatine and sugar.

Set in the mould

  1. Soak the mixture for 2 hours, then gently bring it to a boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.

  2. Add more sugar if necessary, then pour the mixture 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 + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 for flavour and the rind strips for aroma.
Milk
Adds creamy body and softens the sharpness of the citrus.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm but tender mould.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances its acidity.

The step that matters

Gently bringing the mixture to a boil. Gelatine must fully dissolve, which needs gentle heat. Vigorous or prolonged boiling can weaken its setting power, so heat slowly and simmer only briefly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar. 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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