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
Strip the orange peels and soak them in a mixture of salt and water overnight.
Parboil the peels in fresh water, changing the water several times, until tender.
Candy the peel
Weigh the peels and add 1 pound of sugar and 1 cup of water for each pound of peels.
Cover and boil for 1 hour, then remove the cover and let the syrup boil away until nearly dry.
Roll the peels in 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peel and, as syrup, slowly replaces water in the peel so it turns translucent and chewy.
- Orange peel
- Provides the bulk of the candy, plus the bitter aroma and flavor that the sugar balances.
- Salt
- Softens the peel during the overnight soak and helps draw out some bitterness.
The step that matters
Letting the syrup boil away until nearly dry. If the syrup is removed too early, the peel stays wet and soft; if it boils too long, the sugar crystallizes and the peel turns hard. Stopping near dryness leaves a sticky, sugar-coated finish.
“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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