Oranges: 2 tips

Before I eat an orange, I peel off the zest, using my handy Titan peeler, which is razor sharp (I can get a single peel from pole to pole).

If I'm going to quarter the orange for eating, I don't slice down the center of the orange pole to pole. I turn the orange about 45 deg. before slicing. That way I don't experience a long, pithy portion in each slice.

I chop and dry the peel for other uses. I sometimes run the dried, chopped zest pieces through my coffee grinder to make a powder. Orange zest is useful for adding to many recipes. In my case, I often use a bit of orange zest in my breads. And it's certainly cheaper making my own dried zest.

I still supreme my sections. I've never found it to be a tedious chore, and it gives very worthwhile results.

I do the supreme thing too, love it. I do it over a bowl and use the resulting juices to add to a vinaigrette or even to the recipe. I also have frozen lemon and orange zest in my freezer. I tend to forget about it sometimes, so have lemons or oranges with no zest in fridge to use up.

Some varieties of orange are difficult to peel, others are easy.

I buy navel oranges as they are easy to peel and break divide sections and also juicy.

Before I eat an orange, I peel off the zest, using my handy Titan peeler, which is razor sharp (I can get a single peel from pole to pole).

Technically the zest is the colored, outer part of the peel of a citrus fruit. You are removing the entire peel, both the zest and the underlying white part. You're very right that dried orange peel can work wonders when added to dishes. There are lots of Chinese dishes that call for dried tangerine peel, and it's available commercially in many Asian groceries. I make my own by saving and drying the peel from tangerines or mandarins.

Peter is right that oranges differ widely in how easy it is to remove the peel. Modern orange varieties have trended towards being easy to peel and seedless. I needed to use Seville (sour) oranges for a recipe and found them to be a throwback to a previous era--very had to peel and lots of seeds.

-Paul W.

I needed to use Seville (sour) oranges for a recipe and found them to be a throwback to a previous era--very had to peel and lots of seeds.

Seville oranges (imported from Spain) appear here in February and are only available for around 4 weeks. They are essential for making marmalade. We now buy a years supply and freeze them, making batches of 8-9 jars of marmalade throughout the year as needed

Lovely stuff. Our breakfast is a slice of home made bread, toasted with spread and marmalade.

[Jenise]

When I was a child my mother would buy mostly Valencia oranges. About billiard ball size, they would cost two or three for a penny at a produce stand near the Mexican side of town that sold mostly seconds, the ugly produce the supermarket chains wouldn't buy. Thing is, those seconds were often locally grown and by far the best tasting, no matter what they looked like. I remember the Valencias well: yellow-orange in color and often covered with lots of scars which I eventually discovered were the sweetest ones. I would grab a handful, cut them in half (width wise), and plonk myself down in front of the TV with a tray of them which I'd eat right out of the rind. No peeling needed.

I could not understand then, and don't understand now, how the bland navels were preferable to those exquisitely tangy Valencias. I still don't buy navels.

When my dad was in the Navy his fleet sailed out of Chareston SC (where I was born) and Pensicola FL. My mother spent a couple of years in Pensicola and fell in love with the local, ultra-fresh oranges. One of her few regrets about moving back to Connecticut was that all she could get in the markets were the bland, commercial oranges that are the citrus equivalent of supermarket golf ball tomatoes.. These oranges are picked when still green and spray-painted to have a consistent orange color. One day we were in our local supermarket and they had a special on oranges. Most customers were giving the ugly, mottled fruit the hairy eyeball. My mother exclaimed, "Oh my God! real oranges!" She bought loads of them, and they were fantastic.

-Paul W.