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Candied Orange Peel
Cut the peel of three or four oranges into narrow strips and soak it twenty-four hours in enough cold water to cover, adding two tablespoonfuls of salt to each quart of water used. Pour off the salt water and rinse very thoroughly. Cover with fresh cold water and boil until almost tender. Make a syrup of two cups of sugar and one and onequarter cups of water. When it boils add the orange peel and simmer gently until it looks clear and the syrup has thickened. Take out a few pieces at a time with a fork, roll in granulated sugar, and spread on a flat platter. Or it may be dried in the oven with the door open, packed in glass jars, and used for mince pies, puddings, etc., cut in small bits. If any syrup remains it can be used a second time, or it will flavor a pudding sauce.
A straightforward candying method that still works, though a few of its steps need translating and one of them can be improved on.
- The salt soakThe twenty-four-hour brine draws out bitterness from the white pith. It is effective but slow; three changes of fresh water brought to a boil and drained does the same job in half an hour. If you do use the brine, rinse until no salinity remains or the finished sweets will taste odd.
- QuantitiesThree or four oranges yield roughly 1 to 1½ cups of packed strips. Two cups sugar to 1¼ cups water is about a 60 percent syrup, ample to cover that amount.
- Boil until almost tenderSimmer the strips in fresh water 15 to 25 minutes, until a strip can be pierced easily with a fork but has not collapsed. Peel that goes into syrup underdone stays tough and never softens afterward.
- The hinge: simmer gentlyKeep the syrup at a bare simmer and expect 45 minutes to an hour; as it concentrates a thermometer will climb from roughly 217F towards the mid-220sF. Rushed over high heat the sugar concentrates before it penetrates the peel, leaving hard, hollow strips in a syrup that crystallizes.
- Sugar rollingLet the strips drain on a rack a few minutes so the coating clings without dissolving into a wet crust. Superfine sugar coats more evenly than granulated.
- Oven dryingThe open door keeps the heat low and lets moisture escape. Use 175-200F with the door slightly ajar for an hour or two, or leave the strips at room temperature overnight.
- StorageFully dried peel keeps in a sealed jar for months. Peel still tacky with syrup will mold; dry it further before it goes into the cupboard.
- Choose the fruitThick-skinned navels and Sevilles candy better than thin-skinned juicing oranges. Scrub well, since the peel is the whole dish and most supermarket citrus is waxed.
Candying citrus peel is one of the oldest forms of sugar preservation in European cookery, reaching the English kitchen through the medieval and Renaissance trade in imported oranges, when the fruit was expensive enough that discarding half of it was unthinkable. Its appearance in a book devoted entirely to left-overs is a reminder that thrift, not novelty, drove much home confectionery: the peel arrived free with the juice, and sugar turned it into both a sweetmeat and a pantry staple. The suggestion to save the leftover syrup for a pudding sauce, and the peel itself for mincemeat and puddings, is characteristic of the genre, where each byproduct is expected to have a second use before anything reaches the bin. Commercial candied peel appears to have been available by the early twentieth century, so this recipe is quietly making the case that the homemade version costs nothing at all.