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Orange Salad
For six persons pare four rather acid oranges, slice them very thin, cutting down the sides instead of across, and sprinkle with sugar. Mix one tablespoon grape juice with one of cider vinegar and one of lemon juice and pour it over the fruit. Set on ice an hour before using. Serve before a game course.
A sharp, oil-free fruit salad meant as a palate cleanser rather than a side dish. The whole point is acidity, so the choice of orange matters more than anything else.
- Choose the right orangeModern navels and Cara Caras are bred for sweetness and will make this cloying. Valencias, Sevilles if you can get them, or blood oranges give the tartness the recipe assumes.
- "Pare"Means cutting the peel away with a knife, taking the white pith with it, rather than tearing the skin off by hand. Trim off the top and bottom first so the fruit sits flat and you can follow its curve.
- Cutting down the sidesSlice from top to bottom rather than into crosswise wheels, so each slice runs the length of the segments. The pieces hold together better and look less like breakfast fruit.
- Grape juiceMost likely unfermented bottled grape juice, commercially available in America from the later nineteenth century, rather than wine. Concord-style purple juice is the closest match and adds a little colour.
- The dressing is tinyThree tablespoons of liquid for four oranges is deliberate. It is a seasoning, not a pool, and the sugar sprinkled on the fruit draws out enough juice to extend it.
- "Set on ice"An hour in the refrigerator. Do not go much longer or the sugar and acid will slacken the slices into mush.
- Yield and serviceSix small portions, as written. Serve in shallow glass dishes or on chilled plates; it is placed before the game course to cut the richness of what follows.