Ingredient: Seville Oranges
Category: Fruit - Citric
Season: December to February
The name "bitter orange" refers to a citrus tree (Citrus aurantium) and its fruit.
Many varieties of bitter oranges are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume and as flavouring.
They are also used in herbal medicine. Other names include sour orange, bigarade orange and Seville orange.
Seville orange (or bigarade) is a widely known, extremely tart orange now grown throughout the Mediterranean region.
It has a thick, dimpled skin and is prized for making marmalade, being higher in pectin than the sweet orange, and therefore giving a better set and a higher yield.
It is also used in compotes and for orange-flavoured liqueurs.
Other varieties of bitter oranges:
Citrus aurantium subsp. amara is a spiny evergreen tree native to southern Vietnam, but widely cultivated.
It is used as grafting stock for citrus trees, in marmalade, and in the liqueurs Triple sec, Grand Marnier and Curaçao.
It is also cultivated for the essential oil expressed from the fruit, and for neroli oil and orange flower water, which are distilled from the flowers.
Bergamot orange, C. aurantium subsp. bergamia is cultivated in Italy for the production of bergamot oil, a component of many brands of perfume and tea. Chinotto, from the myrtle-leaved orange tree, C. aurantium var. myrtifolia, native to Italy
Daidai, C. aurantium var. daidai, used in Chinese medicine and Japanese New Year celebrations.
Uses in cooking
The unripe fruit called "narthangai" is commonly used in Southern Indian food, especially in Tamil cuisine.
The unripe fruit; is pickled by cutting it into spirals and stuffing it with salt. The pickle is usually consumed with thayir sadam.
The fresh fruit is also used frequently in pachadis.
In Cuban cooking, the juice from the ripe fruit is also used as a marinade in meat. The peel can also become an ingredient in bitters.
The Belgian Witbier (white beer) is a beer made from wheat, which is spiced with the peel of the bitter orange.
The Finnish use bitter orange shell in gingerbread, also in mämmi.
Seville orange marmalade.
Proper home-made marmalade really is one of the world’s great luxury foods. The shop-bought versions can never match homemade, from just three simple ingredients – Seville oranges, water and sugar.
Seville oranges are used because they are bitter and when combined with sugar the predominant flavour is that of the oranges, with a sharp tangy taste.
No marmalade made with any other citrus fruit has that intensity of flavour, where the sharpness of the oranges wins hands down over the sugar, totally eliminating that over-sweetness that so often masks the true flavour of fruit in preserves.
The Seville orange season is short, from December to February, so it’s best to make enough marmalade for the whole year while they’re available.
Sevilles do freeze perfectly well, so it is possible to store them for later use.
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