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Orange-Peel, Candied
Divide the fruit into quarters lengthwise, and remove the pulp; or, if preferred, take any piece of orange rind which are not required, provided only that they are large enough. Throw them into salt and water sufficiently strong to bear an egg, and let them infuse for six days. Drain them well, throw them into cold water for an hour, and afterwards place them in a preserving-pan with as much cold water as will cover them, and let them boil until they are so tender that they can be easily pierced with a fork or skewer. Drain them again, and boil them in a thin syrup, made in the proportion of a pint of water to half a pound of loaf sugar, until they look clear, which will be in about half an hour. Boil some sugar, with as much water as it will absorb, to a clear syrup. There should be enough to cover the orange-rinds when they are thrown in. Boil them until the sugar candies, then take them out, drain them, sift a little powdered sugar over them, and place them in a warm place to dry; then store for use. Time, a week to prepare. Probable cost of oranges, from 8d. to 1s. per dozen.
A week-long Victorian method for candied orange peel, built around a long salt cure that most modern recipes replace with repeated blanching. Everything here still works, but several of the measurements need translating.
- Brine "strong enough to bear an egg"An egg floats at roughly 10 per cent salinity, which is about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of table salt per quart of water; a strong brine, but well short of saturation. The six-day soak firms the peel and draws out bitterness, and it is the reason the recipe takes a week.
- You can skip the cureModern practice gets a similar result by boiling the peel in fresh water three or four times, draining between each, which takes under an hour. If you do follow the original brine, keep the one-hour cold-water soak; without it the peel is more likely to taste salty.
- Loaf sugarRefined cane sugar sold in cones, broken up and crushed before use. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct equivalent, weight for weight.
- The thin syrupA pint of water to half a pound of sugar; the imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so roughly 2 1/2 US cups water to a generous cup of sugar. This first, weak syrup lets sugar penetrate the peel slowly; going straight to a heavy syrup seals the surface and leaves the inside tough.
- "Boil until the sugar candies"The original judges this by eye, as the syrup thickens to the point where sugar begins to crystallise on the peel. In modern terms that is around the thread stage, roughly 230F; taken much further the peel hardens and the syrup is apt to grain in the pan.
- Preserving-panA wide, heavy pan with plenty of surface area for evaporation; period examples were usually brass or copper. For a modern batch use stainless steel or another non-reactive metal, as the acid in citrus can pick up a metallic taste from bare copper, iron or aluminium.
- Drying in a warm placeThe Victorian answer was the cooling oven or the plate rack. An oven at its lowest setting, 150F or below with the door propped, for two to three hours works, or leave the pieces on a rack overnight at room temperature until tacky rather than wet.
- Yield and keepingKeeping -- the recipe gives no yield. Stored dry in an airtight tin, layered with a little caster sugar, candied peel keeps for several months; a damp fridge is best avoided.
Candying citrus rind is far older than this book. Medieval and Tudor English kitchens knew it as "succade", and imported boxes of candied orange and lemon peel were a luxury item long before oranges themselves became cheap. What changed by the time Cassell's was compiled in the late nineteenth century was price: the note of 8d. to 1s. a dozen belongs to a period when the peel that had once been a preserved delicacy could be treated as a by-product of the household's ordinary fruit. That is why the recipe opens by suggesting you use "any piece of orange rind which are not required" -- this is a thrift recipe as much as a confectionery one, turning waste into the studding for cakes, puddings and the Christmas mincemeat. The long salt cure is the older technique, generally traced to preserving methods that predate reliable cheap sugar.