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Dessert

Turkish Delight

A gelatinous confection made from sugar, gelatine, citrus zest, and juice, rolled in powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Turkish Delight

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Boil sugar, gelatine, and water for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the rind and juice of the oranges and lemons.

  3. Strain the mixture into pans that have been wet with cold water.

Set and finish

  1. Let it stand overnight.

  2. Cut into squares and roll in powdered sugar.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and, once boiled, the firm body of the candy.
Gelatine
Sets the boiled syrup into a soft, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Orange and lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Orange rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oil for fragrance and flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar, gelatine, and water for 20 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar syrup so the candy sets firm enough to cut. Too little boiling leaves it soft and sticky, while overheating can make it hard and brittle.

“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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