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 oranges
Cut the oranges whole into a preserving pan and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil, then pour off the liquid and add fresh water.
Boil gently until the rinds can be easily pierced with a pin.
Drain the oranges and cut them into very thin slices, removing the pips.
Make the marmalade
Combine the fruit with ½ pint of the reserved water and half the sugar in a preserving pan.
Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then add the remaining sugar.
Boil for 20 minutes longer, or until the marmalade jellies.
Jar and store
Pour into jars, cover when cold, and store for use.
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
- Provide the fruit and peel, whose pectin and bitterness set and flavour the marmalade.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, when boiled with the fruit, helps it set to a jelly.
- Water
- Softens the peel and extracts flavour and pectin from the oranges during simmering.
The step that matters
Boil until the marmalade jellies. Marmalade sets only when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling. Undercooked marmalade stays runny, while overcooking can make it stiff 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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