Home › Bouillons › Orange Bouillon
Orange Bouillon
Squeeze and strain sufficient orange juice to measure one quart. Put into a double boiler with one-half of a cupful of granulated sugar; cover and stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture scalded. Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot with one-half of a cupful of cold water, add to the contents of the double boiler and stir constantly until thickened and clear, then cover and cook for five minutes. Set away until chilled, then add two tablespoonfuls of curacoa cordial and serve in glasses with cracked ice.
A chilled sweet drink rather than a savoury broth — "bouillon" here borrows the name for anything served in a cup or glass. Nothing about it is difficult, but the arrowroot needs a light hand.
- QuantitiesA quart of orange juice takes roughly 8-12 juicing oranges depending on size and season. Half a cup of sugar is right for tart winter fruit; with very sweet supermarket navels, start with a third of a cup and taste.
- Arrowroot, not cornstarchArrowroot is still sold and is the correct choice: it thickens clear and holds up in acid, where cornstarch goes cloudy and can thin out. Two tablespoons in a quart gives a barely-there body, not a pudding.
- The hinge — do not boilArrowroot loses its thickening power if held at a hard boil, and the mixture thins and can turn slightly slimy. The double boiler in the original is doing exactly that job; keep the water below a simmer. Note that the original directs a further five minutes covered after the liquid turns from milky to clear — if you are wary of overcooking the starch, keep that heat very gentle or shorten it.
- "Scalded"About 180F — steaming, with a ring of small bubbles at the edge, no rolling boil. Heat only until the sugar has fully dissolved.
- CuraçaoModern orange curaçao stands in for the period "curacoa cordial"; Grand Marnier or Cointreau are close, though both are drier and stronger than a period cordial, so add to taste. Add it after chilling, as the original directs, so the aroma is not lost to heat. Leaving it out gives a perfectly good non-alcoholic version.
- ChillingCover the surface while it cools or it will form a skin. Several hours in the refrigerator, or overnight; whisk briefly before pouring to loosen the gel.
- Yield and servingA quart plus additions serves six to eight in small glasses or bouillon cups. "Cracked ice" means coarsely broken, not crushed — it dilutes more slowly.
By 1900 "bouillon" had drifted well past beef tea. Fruit bouillons appear in American cookbooks of the period — a clear, faintly thickened citrus drink that read as elegant and light in the same way a sorbet course did. Arrowroot was the thickener of choice for such things: imported from the West Indies, expensive next to cornstarch, and prized in nineteenth-century cookery for producing a glossy, transparent set that suited invalid cookery and party dishes alike. Curaçao — orange liqueur originally made with the dried peel of bitter laraha oranges from the Dutch Caribbean island — appears constantly in turn-of-the-century punches and fruit cups, and here it is doing the work a splash of orange bitters or liqueur still does: sharpening a sweet juice into something that tastes composed rather than merely squeezed.