How to prepare an orange
26 April 2021 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI have recently (and belatedly) learned/discovered how to prepare an orange so that the segments are free of their inner membrane, for salad purposes -- as seen in tinned mandarin oranges, for example.
You don't peel it. (In fact, the process is rather easier if you haven't been sold easy-peel oranges!) You start by cutting off the top and bottom of the fruit, peel and all, with a sharp short-bladed knife, just deep enough to take off the tips of the segments. Then you cut off the rest of the peel, making sure you cut deep enough to remove all the pith, which will again carve off a thin layer of the inner fruit (and the attached membrane) in the process.
At this point the only remaining membrane will be on the two 'sides' of each segment when you separate them, and it should be possible to peel this off and/or squeeze the segment out whole. Obviously it's easier with large, tough oranges than with clementines, but for salad purposes it's usually sufficient to get the slices out in pieces -- it just pays to do the whole job over the salad bowl so that the inevitable dripping juice isn't wasted!
You don't peel it. (In fact, the process is rather easier if you haven't been sold easy-peel oranges!) You start by cutting off the top and bottom of the fruit, peel and all, with a sharp short-bladed knife, just deep enough to take off the tips of the segments. Then you cut off the rest of the peel, making sure you cut deep enough to remove all the pith, which will again carve off a thin layer of the inner fruit (and the attached membrane) in the process.
At this point the only remaining membrane will be on the two 'sides' of each segment when you separate them, and it should be possible to peel this off and/or squeeze the segment out whole. Obviously it's easier with large, tough oranges than with clementines, but for salad purposes it's usually sufficient to get the slices out in pieces -- it just pays to do the whole job over the salad bowl so that the inevitable dripping juice isn't wasted!
