No. 3681

Preserved Orange or Lemon Peel

Ecorces d'Oranges ou de Citrons Confites

Cut some oranges or lemons in four, remove the pulp and put the peels in a basin with water; blanch thoroughly. When they are soft to the touch take from the fire, drain and put them in a panful of cold water; leave to soak for twenty-four hours, changing the liquid from time to time, or, if possible, stand the pan under the faucet and let the water run over continuously, then drain. Range the peels in a vessel, cover with a boiling syrup at fifteen degrees and leave them in for twelve hours; at the expiration of that time drain off the syrup. boil it up to eighteen degrees, then pour it again over the peels, leaving them steep for ten or twelve hours. Repeat this operation six or seven times, gradually increasing the strength of the syrup until it reaches thirty-two degrees. The last time prepare a fresh thirty-two degree syrup. Drain the fruits from the syrup they are in and put them into this fresh one that is in the act of boiling; boil up once; remove from the fire and lay them in stone pots, covering with this last syrup; close hermetically when quite cold.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a confectioner's saccharometer and a slow week at the stove. The method still works exactly as written once the degree marks are translated into sugar concentrations.

"Degrees" means Baumé"Degrees" means Baume -- These are readings from a syrup hydrometer, not temperatures. Roughly: 15 Be is about 27 percent sugar by weight (1 part sugar to about 2.7 parts water), 18 Be about 33 percent, and 32 Be about 59-60 percent - near 1.5 parts sugar to 1 part water. A cheap Brix refractometer reads the same syrups if you prefer: 15 Be is about 27 Brix, 32 Be about 59 Brix.
Why the syrup climbs slowlyThis is the whole point of the recipe. Dropping blanched peel straight into heavy syrup pulls water out faster than sugar goes in, and the peel shrivels and turns leathery. Six or seven soaks with the syrup strengthened a few degrees each time lets the sugar exchange gradually and keeps the peel plump and translucent.
Blanch until genuinely softTake "soft to the touch" to mean a skewer meets little resistance. Peel that is still firm when it enters the syrup is unlikely to soften much afterwards, since sugar tends to set the texture in place.
The 24-hour soakThis leaches the bitter white pith. The recipe offers the continuously running faucet only "if possible"; today change the water four or five times over the day instead. Taste a scrap before proceeding: it should be clean and faintly bitter, not harsh.
Modern fruit is waxedSupermarket citrus is usually coated and often sprayed. Buy unwaxed or organic fruit for this, or scrub the skins in hot water with a little soda before cutting.
TimingPlan on five to seven days start to finish, most of it unattended. Each syrup soak is 10 to 12 hours, so an evening-and-morning rhythm fits the schedule neatly.
"Close hermetically" and storageA 32°Bé syrup is around 60 percent sugar, which is below the roughly 65 percent generally taken as shelf-stable for a sugar preserve. Use scalded jars, and once cool keep them refrigerated rather than in the pantry.
If you want candied peel for bakingDrain the finished peel from the syrup, rest it on a rack until tacky rather than wet, then toss in granulated sugar. Stored dry in a tin it keeps for months and behaves like commercial candied peel.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working reference — which is why this entry reads like a note to a confectioner rather than instructions for a home cook. Candied citrus peel belongs to a preserving tradition much older than the book: sugar-preserved peel was a luxury import into northern Europe from the Mediterranean by the late medieval period, and by the nineteenth century écorces confites were a standard item of the French confiserie, sold by weight and folded into cakes, puddings and petits fours. The graduated syrup ladder described here — 15 degrees to 32, a few degrees at a time — is the classic confectioner's technique for candying any firm fruit, and the same sequence appears in French professional manuals for angelica, chestnuts and whole apricots. The degree scale itself is Baumé's, devised in the eighteenth century for measuring the density of solutions and still marked on syrup hydrometers sold today.