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
Wipe the oranges.
Remove the peel in quarters, scraping off the white pith.
Cut the peel into thin strips.
Cook the strips in boiling water until tender.
Drain the strips.
Candy the peel
Combine sugar and orange juice in a saucepan to make a syrup.
Add the orange rind to the syrup.
Cook slowly until most of the syrup has evaporated.
Drain the rind.
Roll the rind in coarse 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 candied strips' bitter aroma and chewy texture once cooked and sugared.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as the syrup thickens, coats and preserves it.
- Orange juice
- Adds citrus flavour and liquid to the syrup that the peel absorbs.
The step that matters
Cook the strips in boiling water until tender. Boiling softens the bitter peel and draws out some of its bitterness, so the candied strips are tender rather than tough. Pith left on the peel would add extra bitterness.
“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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