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Dessert

Orange Preserves

Preserves made by boiling oranges with sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 1 ingredients
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Orange Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oranges

  1. Take any number of oranges and add white sugar in a quantity somewhat greater than the oranges' weight.

  2. Slightly grate the oranges and score them around with a knife, but do not cut very deep.

  3. Put the oranges in cold water and leave them for three days, changing the water two or three times a day.

  4. Tie the oranges up in a cloth and boil them until they are soft enough for a pin to penetrate the skin.

Make the syrup

  1. While the oranges are boiling, place the sugar on the fire with rather more than half a pint of water per pound; let it boil for a minute or two, then strain through muslin.

Cook in the syrup

  1. Put the oranges into the syrup until it jellies and turns yellow.

  2. The syrup need not cover the oranges, but turn them so that each part is thoroughly cooked.

  3. Test the syrup by cooling a small amount; it must not be too stiff.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Oranges (in the method)
Provide the fruit, bitter peel and pulp that are cooked into the preserve.
White sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the preserve and, as it thickens, sets the syrup into a jelly.

The step that matters

Testing the syrup. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and sets as it cools. If it is too stiff the preserve will be hard and sugary; if too thin it will not jelly, so a small cooled sample should be checked before removing the fruit.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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