[Sca-cooks] Citrus Question [was Funges Follies]

[Elaine Koogler]

----- Original Message -----
> Greetings,
> On that thought I have a question that I hope the gentles here on the list
> can help with. This weekend I embarked on the retacting/testing portion of
> an upcoming feast. I prepared the Salmon Casserole (182) and the Meat
> Casserole (124) from Libra del Coch by de Nola (thank you Stefan for
having
> it online!).

Hope you'll share what you're doing with these....

> After the tasting portion of the evening I decided I need to punch up the
> prescence of the orange juice in both dishes a good bit. The question I
have
> is: When did the technique of "zesting" citrus and adding it to a dish to
up
> the citrus quotient come about?
> Also, what would be the best oranges to use & why? Because of a discussion
> that occured on this very list I used blood oranges for both dishes. Are
> they sour enough? Should I add lemon? Should I use a different orange? Is
> there any commercially available pre-squozed juice that would be a good
> substitute? (I do not relish the idea of squozing all of those oranges).
> If I cannot figure out a way to up the orange without compromising the
dish
> then that is okey-dokey, I figured I would just garnish with pretty orange
> slices to advertise that there is orange in the dish.

Actually, the orange that would have been used in period is the Seville
orange.  I understand that you can purchase it canned...I believe, from our
past discussions, that Goya makes such a product.  However, to date, I've
not been able to locate it.  I did actually find some Seville oranges at
that Food of All Nations store I talked about a few weeks back.  Last night,
I did a late period asparagus dish with a sauce made from the orange juice,
sugar and salt.  There is a difference...the Seville orange has more of a
bite to it than our modern oranges.  My impression of blood oranges is that
they are somewhat sweet as well.  Used one of them to make a
marinade/dressing for salmon recently and it didn't have the bite of the
Sevilles.  I've also purchased a canned Seville orange preparation by MaMade
(I think that either the Bakers' Catalogue or Williams Sonoma carries it).
I want to see what that stuff is and if I can extract enough juice to make
the purchse worthwhile.

Hope this helps!

Kiri