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 fruit
Grate the rind of 2 oranges and set aside.
Remove the thick white inner skin from the remaining oranges, quarter them, and remove the seeds.
Chop the oranges into small pieces and drain the juice over the sugar without pressing.
Cook the marmalade
Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves, adding a little water if the oranges are not very juicy.
Boil and skim for 5-6 minutes, then add the boiled shreds and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the chopped fruit and grated peel, and boil for an additional 20 minutes.
Jar and seal
When cold, transfer to small jars and seal with waxed cloths or self-adjusting metal tops.
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
- Peel and pulp supply pectin for setting, plus acidity and bitter citrus flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with the fruit's pectin, helps it set as it cools.
The step that matters
Boil and skim for 5-6 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar and pectin so the marmalade sets as it cools. Skimming removes the foam that would otherwise cloud the finished preserve.
“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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