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Oranges, Iced
Remove the rind and pith from the required number of oranges, being careful not to draw the juice. Make some white icing, as for bride-cake, but thinner; pass a strong thread through the centre of each orange, and dip them singly in the icing, then when dry give them a second coating, and make smooth with a palette knife. The threads can be fastened to a long stick, and the fruit suspended in a warm place until dry. Garnish with some green citron-peel in strips.
A Victorian dessert-table conceit: whole peeled oranges dipped in royal icing and hung to dry. The whole thing hinges on the fruit going into the icing dry and intact.
- Peel without wounding the fruitRemove the rind and white pith with a sharp knife, leaving the segment membranes unbroken. Any weeping juice will streak or dissolve the icing, so blot the peeled oranges dry and let them sit a few minutes before dipping.
- "White icing, as for bride-cake"This is royal icing: icing (confectioners') sugar beaten with egg white and a few drops of lemon juice. For a bride-cake it would be stiff enough to spread; here you want it loose enough to coat like thin cream and drip clear, roughly the consistency of pouring custard.
- Uncooked egg whiteThe icing is never heated, so use pasteurised egg white or meringue powder if you are serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised.
- The threadA thread pushed through the centre will pierce the segments and let juice seep out. It is safer to tie the thread in a loop around the fruit, or to skewer only the tough core at the stem end, and to hang the oranges stem-down so any drips leave from the bottom.
- Two thin coats, not one thickThe first coat sets the surface; the second gives the opaque finish. Let the first dry to the touch before dipping again, and smooth with a small offset spatula, which is what the palette knife is doing here.
- "A warm place"In a Victorian kitchen this would most likely have meant near the range. Anywhere dry and gently warm works; an oven with only the light on is enough. Allow plenty of drying time between coats. Do not use real heat, which will sweat the fruit and crack the shell.
- Green citron-peelCandied citron sold today is not reliably green. Candied angelica was a common Victorian green and is the closer substitute; thin strips of candied lime or lemon peel tinted green will do the same job.
- ServingCount one orange per person. Best made the day they are eaten; as the fruit gives up moisture the icing will go dull and tacky.
Cassell's belongs to the era when the dessert course was as much a display as a dish: a table dressed with pyramids of fruit, spun sugar, jellies in moulds and small confections meant to be looked at before being eaten. Icing whole peeled fruit was one of the cheapest ways to get that effect, and the instruction to use "white icing, as for bride-cake" tells you the household already had royal icing in its repertoire — the stiff, brilliant-white egg-and-sugar coating that had become standard on English wedding cakes by the middle of the nineteenth century. Oranges were plentiful enough by the time the book appeared that a work of this kind can casually call for "the required number". The green citron peel does the same decorative work as angelica or pistachio elsewhere in the book.