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 ↓
Transparent Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Cut the Seville oranges into quarters and remove the pulp into a basin. Pick out the seeds and skins.
Soak the orange peels in water with a little coarse sea salt overnight.
Boil the peels in a good quantity of spring water until tender. Drain the peels.
Cut the drained peels into very thin slices and add them to the pulp.
Make and jar the marmalade
For every pound of pulp, add 1.5 pounds of finely beaten double-refined sugar.
Boil the mixture together for 20 minutes, stirring gently to avoid breaking the slices.
If not clear, simmer for an additional 5 to 6 minutes while stirring gently.
Once cooled, transfer the marmalade into glasses.
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 oranges
- Provide the pulp and peel that supply the marmalade's bitter, aromatic flavour and natural pectin.
- Double-refined sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set into a thick, spreadable gel.
The step that matters
Boiling the mixture with the sugar. Sugar and fruit pectin set only when the mixture reaches a high enough concentration and temperature. Stirring gently keeps the peel slices intact, and simmering longer if it is not clear helps it become translucent.
“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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