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ORANGES IN SYRUP (a dessert dish)
Peel four or five large oranges, and remove all the white pith and thready parts without injuring in the slightest degree the thin transparent skin which covers the fruit. Boil half a pound of loaf sugar in a quarter of a pint of water to a clear syrup, add a wine-glassful of maraschino or any other liqueur or spirit that may be preferred, and pour the hot liquid over the oranges. Let them remain for three or four hours, then turn them over; boil the syrup up once more, and pour it again upon the oranges. Serve in a glass dish, and garnish with sprigs of myrtle. The quantity of sugar used for the syrup must depend upon the season; if it is early in the winter, and the oranges are sour, a larger proportion of sugar should be used, and besides this the oranges should be boiled in the syrup for a few minutes. Time, ten minutes to boil the syrup. Probable cost, exclusive of the spirit, 6d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian dessert of whole peeled oranges steeped in a heavy liqueur syrup. The work is all in the peeling, and the only technical risk is taking the syrup too far.
- The hinge: peel to the membraneThe oranges are served whole, so every scrap of white pith and every thread must come away while the thin transparent skin covering the fruit stays intact. A serrated knife and a shallow, sawing motion works better than fingers.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone and prized for making clear syrup. Ordinary granulated white sugar is a fair modern substitute. Half a pound is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons.
- A quarter of a pintIn an imperial pint of 20 fluid ounces, this is 5 fl oz, or a generous half cup. With 8 oz of sugar it makes a heavy syrup by design; it should stay pale and pourable, so pull it off the heat as soon as it runs clear rather than letting it colour.
- A wine-glassfulRoughly 2 fl oz, or a quarter cup. Add the liqueur off the heat if you want the alcohol to register on the palate; some of it will cook off in boiling syrup.
- Ten minutes to boilOn a modern burner the syrup will be clear in three or four minutes. Ten minutes at a hard boil will carry it into soft-ball territory and it will set stiff around the fruit as it cools.
- The sugar-to-sourness ruleThe note about the season assumes hard, acid winter oranges. Modern supermarket oranges are generally sweeter, so start at the low end of the sugar; the extra few minutes' boiling of the fruit itself is probably unnecessary and risks the oranges breaking up.
- Myrtle for garnishCommon myrtle (Myrtus communis) was among the evergreens used to decorate Victorian sweet dishes. It is a garnish, not something to eat; bay leaves or mint sprigs do the same visual job and are easier to find.
- Timing and yieldThree or four hours steeping, turned once, then re-boiled syrup poured over again — so this wants a morning's head start for an evening table. Serves four or five as written, one orange each.
Oranges reached Victorian Britain in quantity from Spain and Portugal, and later from Jaffa, arriving through the winter months, which is why the recipe's advice on sugar turns on the season: early-season fruit was sharper. The maraschino called for was the clear liqueur made from marasca cherries at Zara on the Dalmatian coast, familiar in nineteenth-century Britain. The dish is a cheap showpiece — sixpence, exclusive of the spirit — the kind of thing a modest household could set out in a glass dish and have it read as extravagance.