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Dessert

Orange Filling

A thick orange-flavored filling made with cornstarch, sugar, boiling water, butter, egg yolks, orange juice, lemon juice, and grated orange rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Orange Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, mix cornstarch and sugar.

  2. Gradually add boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

  4. Beat in egg yolks, orange juice, lemon juice, and grated orange rind.

  5. Return to heat and cook for a few minutes until thickened again.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats in water, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help thicken it, adding richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and glossy finish.
Orange juice
Provides the main citrus flavour and acidity.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the acidity of the citrus.

The step that matters

Beating in the egg yolks. Hot starch mixtures can scramble egg yolks if they are added too quickly or over high heat. Adding yolks off the heat and then gently re-cooking the filling helps them thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, lemon):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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