[Sca-cooks] weight of orange peel

[Olwen the Odd]

>At 04:38 PM 9/23/02 +0000, you wrote:
> >
> >'prepared the peel', meaning, boiled it in simple syrup.  For one orange
>it
> >was not a very lengthly process, only about 25 minutes till translucent,
> >then drained, put in the dehydrator till lightly tacky then tossed in
> >granulated sugar.  The only danger I can see from this is getting
>splashed
> >with the syrup, which is not at all advisable.  Or burning up your pan
> >because you boiled out the syrup.
> >Olwen
>
>    Sorry I didn't read prepared as boiling..  By prepared I thought you
>meant peeling, cutting, and maybe the pre-soaking.  The boiling is
>candying.
>
>    Splashed is what I meant by dangerous, as the syrup goes from simmering
>to over boiling very FAST!!   Boiling syrup hurts, but you only usually
>make
>that mistake once!
>
>          As far as length, I meant length. All the receipts a can find
>show
>the orange peels being soaked for several days prior to boiling, I suppose
>this may have to do with oranges soaked in brine, but I have always
>followed
>the reccomendation.  Boiling times are listed at about an hour not that
>long. I have never used a deydrator in the process at all.
>
>     Here at home my wife and I do have  a few pre-1600 receipts, usually
>listed as "Preserving Oranges".  They are the same as the 18th century ones
>that I am familiar with, though most use Rose water in the syrup and some
>call for additional spices, one for wine.
>
>Ranald de Balinhard,

I did this one orange on the quick.  Usually I will do 1 to 2 dozen oranges
at a time.  Same with lemons, limes or grapefruit peel.  Never do them
together.  Ick.  In the case of doing lots of peel at one time, the process
is far longer.  I have sharpened my potato peeler and can get mostly pith
free skin, then all I have to do is scrape the small remaining pith off the
skin.  Limes and grapefruit I presoak and change the syrup at least once
because it will be much more bitter and discolour if not.  I do not use
rosewater because we have certain folks around here with allergies to it.  I
have not tried wine or any other thing.  When I do ginger, I peel a couple
pounds of ginger (or try to get someone else to) then slice thinly and set
to simmer for several hours.  The air can get so pungent it will sting your
eyes.  I always have to add more water and sugar because of the length of
simmering time.  I have tried to do this by letting the ginger just soak
overnight after an hours simmer, but have never had success with this
method.  Eventually the ginger will get translucent and soft, even though
you never beleive that will happen.  I then dry it on racks overnight or
longer, toss in sugar and spread out again for another day, toss in sugar
again (because all the first tossing has been absorbed) and then put on the
dehydrator for a while, with a final toss in sugar before storing.  Now,
cranberries.  That is a whole different thing, and man do I love those.  I
make a simple syrup, wash the cranberries while the syrup is warming, toss
the cranberries in the hot syrup and turn off the flame, cover the pan and
let sit on the counter overnight, then I drain them off, let them sit on a
screen to dry and toss in sugar and let sit to dry completely before
storing.  Yum.

I have found that de-pithing the whole fruits (oranges, lemons and limes)
and cutting into rounds about half an inch or so thick, setting to dry on
the dehydrator and dipping in chocolate (dark for oranges, regular for
lemons and white for limes), once set out on a table or tea will not last
long.  No.  Not period, just delicious.  The limes turn a funky brown colour
that I thought would turn folks off, instead, they seem to be the most
popular!
Olwen

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx