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Candied Orange Peel
Cut orange skin in quarters, cover with cold water, bring to boiling point and cook until soft. Drain, remove white portion and with scissors cut yellow into thin strips. Boil 1/2 cup sugar until syrup threads when dropped from tip of spoon. Cook strips in syrup 5 minutes, drain and coat with fine granulated sugar. The candied peel of grapefruit is done the same way.
A compact version of a technique that usually runs much longer. The instructions assume you know that syrup stages are judged by feel, so the one number worth having is 230-235F.
- The syrup stage"Threads when dropped from the tip of a spoon" is the thread stage, 230-235F on a candy thermometer. Below that the coating stays sticky; much above it the peel candies hard and the sugar coating clumps.
- Missing liquidBoiling half a cup of sugar dry will caramelise, not thread. The recipe assumes water was added and does not say how much; roughly a quarter cup of water to the half cup of sugar will reach thread stage in a few minutes.
- BitternessOne boil in cold-started water is the minimum. Two or three changes of water, each brought up from cold, gives noticeably less bitter peel, and this matters more with grapefruit than orange.
- Remove all the pithThe white portion holds most of the bitterness and it also holds water, which keeps the strips soggy in the syrup. Scrape it away with a spoon while the peel is still warm and pliable.
- Five minutes is briefAt that time the peel is coated rather than fully candied, so it stays soft and will not keep long. Many modern versions simmer the strips 30-45 minutes until translucent, which allows the sugar to penetrate and helps the peel keep.
- Drying before sugaringLet the drained strips sit on a rack until tacky but not wet, then toss in granulated sugar. Sugaring while dripping wet dissolves the coating into syrup.
- Yield and keepingThe peel of three or four oranges gives something on the order of a cup of finished strips. Store airtight between layers of waxed paper; a short-cooked peel like this is best within a week or two.
Candying citrus peel is a thrift technique older than any of the books it appears in: the fruit was expensive, the skin was the part usually thrown away, and sugar turned it into something that kept. Peel candied this way was a standard component of the Christmas larder, eaten as a sweetmeat, chopped into fruitcakes and puddings, or used to decorate them. The note that grapefruit works the same way may be a period marker in itself: grapefruit became widely available as an American breakfast fruit in the early twentieth century, and cookbooks of that era often carry small suggestions for what else to do with it.