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Orange Ratafia
Take six thick-skinned Seville oranges, cut off the yellow rinds as thin as possible and put them in a jar. Cut the six oranges into halves, squeeze the juice from them, strain it and add it to the peels in the jar; put in one pound of powdered sugar and stir in the orange juice till quite dissolved, then pour over it two quarts of brandy. Close the jar air-tight, let it stand for one month, strain it, put it into bottles, and cork them well.
A cold infusion, not a cooked one, so success turns almost entirely on the peel and on patience. Nothing here has changed except the availability of the fruit.
- Seville orangesThese are bitter oranges, in season roughly January to March and usually sold for marmalade. They are what gives the ratafia its edge; sweet navel oranges make something flabby and syrupy by comparison. Bottled Seville juice can stand in for the juice, but you still need fresh fruit for the rind.
- Cut the rind thinThis is the hinge. The oils live in the outer yellow zest; the white pith underneath turns the infusion harshly bitter and slightly muddy over a month's steeping. A vegetable peeler held at a shallow angle gives cleaner strips than a knife.
- Powdered sugarIn 1896 this means granulated sugar ground fine, not the modern confectioner's sugar cut with cornstarch. Use superfine (caster) sugar, or ordinary granulated stirred until dissolved. One pound is about 2 1/4 cups.
- BrandyTwo quarts of a plain, unaged or lightly aged grape brandy at around 40 percent ABV suits it. Nothing expensive: the orange oil will dominate whatever you put in. A higher-proof spirit extracts the peel faster.
- The jarYou need a vessel of at least three quarts, with a gasket or a tight screw lid, and a little headspace above the liquid. Glass is safest; avoid reactive metal. Keep it out of direct light.
- One monthThat is genuine, not padding. Two weeks gives a thin, mostly sweet result; the peel oils and the faint bitterness need the full time to marry. Shake or swirl the jar every few days.
- StrainingStrain first through a sieve, then through damp muslin or a coffee filter to catch the pulp fines that will otherwise settle as sludge in the bottles. The liquid clears further if the bottles rest a few weeks before drinking.
- Yield and keepingRoughly two and a half to three quarts. At about 30 percent alcohol after sugar and juice, it keeps well corked in a cool cupboard. Serve in small glasses after dinner, or use it where an orange liqueur is called for.
Ratafia is the old European name for any cordial made by steeping fruit, peel or kernels in spirit with sugar rather than distilling them, and by the eighteenth century it covered everything from cherry and apricot versions to the almond-kernel ones that gave their name to ratafia biscuits. The word is generally traced to the Latin phrase used in ratifying an agreement, the toast drunk when a bargain was sealed, though the etymology is traditional rather than settled. Bitter Seville oranges had been the standard flavouring orange in European kitchens for centuries before the sweet orange displaced them at the table, and they survived in marmalade, in curacao and in liqueurs like this one precisely because their peel carries more aromatic oil than sweet varieties.