SC - candied grapefruits

[Mark Harris]

On Thursday, April 24, Julleran said:

So maybe that 15th C. explorer I heard about saw them on a trip to the
East?! I wish I could remember where I heard (or read) that tidbit! But
if grapefruit are native to Asia, then they would probably have been
imported along with spices, silks and other interesting items? So it
looks like the yellow variety are okay, but not the pink. Well,
Adamantius and I were both right - kind of! :-) Any other ideas?

>>>>
Umm. Not to be too picky here but I don't think this works. I can see
spices, silks and other items being imported from Asia to Europe,
especially by ship rather than caravan. But I don't think grapefruits
would arrive in good shape even by ship. I would wonder about mold
by ship and think if you tried by caravan you'd just end up with the
desicated peels. And yes we're talking about the peels but would
you *pay* to ship grapefruit peels halfway around the world?

For normal use, I think grapefruit peels would work fine. I agree
that modern lime peels are quite difficult to candy because they
are so thin. I believe that period oranges, limes, lemons and such
had much thicker peels so perhaps the grapefruit is not that far
off with that in mind.

Stefan li Rous
markh at risc.sps.mot.com