CookEat Recipe
Bitter Orange Preserve
Tender strips of bitter orange in a rich syrup, softened before cooking with sugar.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: About 1 kg whole bitter oranges, such as Seville oranges; Caster sugar at 150 g for each 100 g cooked, soaked and prepared orange; Water for boiling and soaking only.
Step 2
Wash the bitter oranges. Cover with water in a large saucepan and boil gently for about 45–75 minutes, until a skewer passes easily through each fruit. Drain, cool promptly in clean cold water and place in a clean covered container with fresh cold water. Refrigerate within 2 hours.
Step 3
Keep the fruit submerged at 4°C or colder for 2 days, changing the water several times each day. Drain, halve and cut into strips about 5 mm thick. Remove seeds and the tough white internal strands while retaining the peel.
Step 4
Weigh these cooked, soaked, trimmed oranges. Use 150 g caster sugar for every 100 g fruit; for example, 700 g prepared fruit requires 1,050 g sugar. Put the oranges and sugar in a wide nonreactive pan without adding cooking water.
Step 5
Warm gently, stirring carefully until the fruit releases moisture and the sugar dissolves. Boil gently for about 15–30 minutes, until the strips are tender in thick syrup. Stop before the syrup becomes very dense or stringy, which would harden the peel. Do not add the lemon or rum from the sweet-orange version.
Step 6
Transfer to clean small heatproof containers, cool promptly and refrigerate within 2 hours. Keep at 4°C or colder and use within 3 days, or freeze in suitable small containers with expansion space. Thaw in the refrigerator. These historical fruit-and-sugar proportions have not been validated for shelf-stable canning; do not store this preparation at room temperature. Discard the entire container if mould, fermentation or other spoilage appears.
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