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Orange Preserves

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place ripe oranges in a kettle and cover them with cold water.

  2. Heat the kettle until the water is scalding hot, then pour off the water.

  3. Repeat this process until the water no longer tastes bitter.

  4. In a separate pot, make a syrup using equal parts sugar and water, boiling until thick.

  5. Add the oranges to the syrup and cover tightly for four to five days.

  6. Remove the fruit, scald the syrup, then return the oranges and bring to a boil.

  7. Transfer the mixture to jars and seal tightly.

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 + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

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