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 ↓
Candied Orange Peel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peel
Wipe the oranges and remove the peel in quarters, scraping off the white pith.
Cut the peel into thin strips and cook in boiling water until tender; then drain.
Make the syrup and candy
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and orange water to make a syrup.
Add the orange rind to the syrup and cook slowly until most of the syrup has evaporated.
Drain the rind and roll it in coarse granulated sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
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
- Orange peel
- Provides the candied texture and the bitter citrus flavour that the sugar balances.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as the syrup cooks down, penetrates it and sets it into a chewy candy.
- Water
- Carries the sugar into the syrup and is the liquid that softens the peel before candying.
The step that matters
Cooking the rind in the syrup until most of the syrup has evaporated. Cooking slowly lets sugar gradually replace the water in the peel, which keeps the rind tender and translucent. Cooking too fast or too long can scorch the sugar or leave the peel hard or sticky.
“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.
More candied orange peel recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.