[Sca-cooks] Seville Orange Juice

[a5foil]

Anahita and all:

Seville Oranges were still in season when I was in Barcelona last February.
They are only in season during January and February. The taste is very
similar to the juice of the sour/bitter oranges I received from Florida. The
hallmarks are intense orange flavor, strong acidity, sourness, very bitter,
and the scent of orange blossom water.

Assuming you can't get Seville Oranges, I suggest you experiment with the
following:

- base: juice of Valencia oranges, reserving the peel and pith
- intense orange flavor and bitterness: bruise the rind and make an infusion
of the pith and bruised rind using blood-warm water (about 90(F) degrees) to
extract additional orange flavor and bitterness from the rinds. Let it steep
for at least 30 minutes in a closed container that will retain the warmth.
Remove the peels while the water is still warm.
- strong acidity and sourness: white grapefruit juice
- scent of orange blossom water: orange blossom water...just enough to add a
faint aroma to the juice. Beware of cosmetic orange blossom water with
additives. Good, inexpensive, food grade orange blossom water can be found
in a good Middle Eastern grocery store.

Try a 2:1 mixture of orange juice to grapefruit juice to begin with. Add the
infused orange peel water, but be careful not to dilute the juice too much.
Add a few drops of orange blossom water, until you can just detect the
aroma. This makes a pretty good approximation. Depending on the quality of
your Valencia oranges, you may need to make the mixture 3:1 orange to
grapefruit.

If you live close enough to me, I will happily send you some (frozen) juice
from what I have collected, so you have something to compare against. E-mail
me off the list if you want to make arrangements for this.

Regards,
Thomas Longshanks (a5foil at ix.netcom.com)


----- Original Message -----
From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 7:55 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Seville Orange Juice


> There's a 16th c. recipe for Seville Orange Juice Sauce, in Marx
snip
> However, fresh Seville Oranges are hard to find any time of year. I
snip
> Anyone have any idea what i can use instead?
>
> I have thought of:
> diluted strained orange marmalade (since it's made of Seville oranges)
> fresh orange juice and fresh grapefruit juice mixed
> fresh orange juice in which orange peels have been soaked
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
> Anahita