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 ↓
Orange Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pare half the oranges and cut the rind into shreds, then boil the shreds in three waters until tender and set them aside.
Grate the rind of the remaining oranges, discarding the thick white inner skin.
Quarter the oranges and remove the seeds, then chop the oranges into small pieces and drain the juice over the sugar without pressing.
Make the marmalade
Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves, adding a little water if the oranges are not juicy.
Boil and skim for five to six minutes.
Add the boiled shreds and cook for ten minutes.
Add the chopped fruit and grated peel, then boil for an additional twenty minutes.
Jar and seal
Once cooled, transfer to small jars and seal with bladder or paper, covering with cloths dipped in wax.
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
- Oranges
- Supply the peel, pith and juice that give marmalade its bitter-sweet flavour and natural pectin.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, when concentrated by boiling, helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Boil with the sugar until the mixture sets. Boiling concentrates the sugar and draws water out of the fruit, while the peel's pectin and acid help the mixture gel. Undercooked marmalade stays runny; overcooked becomes tough and dark.
“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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