[Sca-cooks] Seville Oranges, was Tudor Recipe help

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Thu Jun 11 10:06:56 PDT 2009


I've used fresh Seville oranges, aka bitter oranges. There are some producers here in California who grow them. They are in season for only a short time during the winter - somewhere between December and March, but not that whole span. The peak is generally in February, although this year they were available a bit longer than usual. (we also get fresh Bergamot "oranges" - can you say, "Earl Grey, hot!"?)

Fresh Seville orange juice is not just more sour than normal sweet orange juice, it is also more bitter, very highly acidic, and doesn't taste like sweet orange juice. It is more like tangerine or mandarin orange juice with a nearly equal amount fresh grapefruit juice (for bitterness) and a dash of lemon juice, but even more acidic, not just sour. I've used this blend to augment an inadequate amount of fresh Seville/bitter orange juice.

To me it doesn't taste like sweet orange juice mixed with vinegar or lemon juice, but of course one has to make do with what one can find.

I've never used bottled Seville/bitter orange juice, so i can't comment on any flavor differences.

When the recipe calls for both sugar and Seville/bitter orange juice, i've on occasion substituted traditional orange marmalade, with the peel strained out, since traditional orange marmalade is actually made with Seville/bitter oranges. The peel can be used in other things.

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)


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