Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Oranges Filled with Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Cut a round opening at the top of each orange and carefully remove the insides without breaking the rind.
Soak the rinds in cold water.
Press and strain the juice from the pulp to make jelly.
Color half of the jelly with prepared cochineal and leave the other pale.
Once the jellies are nearly cold, fill the orange rinds with alternating stripes of the two jellies.
When fully set, cut the filled oranges into quarters and arrange them on a dish with myrtle branches.
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 + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + myrtletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together39 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + myrtletop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
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