Candied citrus peel
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To candy citrus peel, you repeatedly boil it starting with cold water for about ten minutes, until you can easily peel off the pith. You then cut the peel into strips and simmer it in sugar syrup.
- Quartered citrus peel
- Approximately 1 cup water to 1 cup peel
- 2 parts sugar to water
Put the peels in a pot of cold water so that the water is about an inch above the peels. Bring the pot to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes until the pith is tender. Remove the peels, and let cool.
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Scrape the pulpy pith from the peel. We recommend using a serrated grapefruit spoon, although a regular spoon will work. Use gentle motions, trying not to tear the skin, although don't worry if it does. Finish the scraping with a sharp knife.
Julienne the peels into quarter inch or smaller strips.
Put peels in nonreactive pot with sugar and water. Make sure the peels are immersed. Bring to a boil, then simmer until peels are translucent. Remove peels and put them on drying rack overnight. Roll in granulated sugar.
Notes
We originally used the Alice Waters recipe (June 21, 2009) which called for raising the heat once the peels became translucent and bringing the sugar syrup to 230 degrees F. We found that this crystallized the sugar, which not only gave it an undesirable texture but also a funky, herbal aftertaste. It also rendered the resulting sugar unusable.
Some recipes call for multiple blanching. We may want to try this as a way to remove that funky cooked aftertaste.
