Why it works: Orange and arrowroot work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Fruit Juices
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Filter the fruit juice to make it clear.
Put the juice in a double boiler and heat until it steams.
Stir in the arrowroot moistened in a little cold water and cook until clear.
Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Transfer the mixture into a bowl to cool.
Serve
To serve, place a piece of ice in each glass.
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 + arrowroottop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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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
- Fruit juice
- Provides the flavour and colour of the clear drink.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the juice lightly and keeps it clear when heated.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and balances any acidity in the fruit.
The step that matters
Stir in the arrowroot moistened in a little cold water and cook until clear. Arrowroot must be mixed into cold water first so it disperses without lumps. Once heated, its starch swells and thickens the juice; cooking until clear shows the starch is fully activated and the juice will not look cloudy.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (arrowroot, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against arrowroot, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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