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
Cut orange peel into strips and soak in slightly salted water for 2-3 days.
Remove from salted water and boil in fresh water for 1 hour.
Make and absorb the syrup
In a separate pot, combine 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water and boil until it forms a syrup.
Add the orange peel to the syrup and cook until it absorbs all the syrup.
Finish
Remove from the kettle and roll the candied peel in 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.
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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
- Orange peel
- Provides the bitter aroma and chewy texture that the sugar syrup carries.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as syrup, replaces its water so it becomes candied and preserved.
The step that matters
Cooking the peel in the syrup until it absorbs all the syrup. Sugar slowly replaces the water inside the peel as it cooks. If the heat is too high or the peel is removed too early, the syrup can crystallize or the peel stays wet and sticky instead of firm and glossy.
“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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