Episode 54 18th Century Oranges - Bitter, Not Sweet

-
Listen to "054 18th Century Oranges - Bitter, not Sweet" on Spreaker.

The reach of the bitter orange? As far and wide as sugar.  

Can you imagine a world without either?  And yet, and orangeless world – both for food and the color are not that far in our past.

 

Well, this is an odd place for my high school French to intrude, but it makes a certain amount of sense.  If you think about it – or maybe if I think about it.

Vercingetorix
a real guy who fought
Julius Ceasar
(but all pictures are pretend)


Astérix & Obélix
cartoon guys
w/ a cartoon Merlin in the background


Charles Martel - the Hammer of the 8th Century Franks

He may have stopped the expansion of
the Umayyad Caliphate at Tours
but the orange - and the tradition of quince and orange patés or cheeses
definitely infiltrated from that same direction a few centuries later


The French city of Orange - in the Vaucluse
the south east section - just up the road from Tours
After its Catholic redesignation

The coat of arms of the Dutch/English Royal house of Orange
of course the motto is in old French



The New York (old New Amsterdam) sports team logos honoring their distant connection to the House of Orange.  Both as descendants of the Dutch & subjects of King William & Queen Mary  




Continuing our story of citrus fruit evolutions - with how we get to bitter orange.
(Also - I would like to note that the Rangpur - while being orange in color, is often known as a "lime" for its flavor - and used in a particularly delicious gin.)



Botanical drawing of quince - 
you can see the resemblance to its 
close relatives apple & pear 


Quince paste or quince cheese

cooked down quince turns this red color due to
chemical changes in the fruit due the cooking progress.























typical pairing of membrillo & Manchego cheese
I mentioned hazelnuts/filberts,
but walnuts seem to be more common.


Guava paste - the membrillo cousin, that is an
absolutely essential element in ....

Guava & Cheese 
pastelitos
(lots of recipes on the internet -
this is a simple one)



















There's Curaçao!

BOLS Orange Curaçao

technically traditional dry (sec) distilled Curaçao laraha oranges is clear.
The modern desire to have it be colors... the 1970's were a weird time.

Visit Mount Vernon to learn how to make an 
Orange Fool

A recipe for a modern
Orange Syllabub from The Kitchn


Bitter Seville Orange gin from Tanqueray
&
Fentiman's Sweet Valencia Orange Tonic
- no scurvy defense here, but delicious - 
SURPRISE! 
The mark or coat of arms of 
Tanquery... is a pineapple!?




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie

-
Listen to "065 Cream & Pudding & Cake that is Not a Lie" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode:  Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie 18th Century, pre-revolutionary cake was generally a heavy dense thing compared to our modern, airy baking powder assisted cakes.  The only leavening was yeast and eggs.  And sugar?  Expensive.  Cakes were definitely less sweet.  If you were not wealthy, or it wasn't a wedding, birth or a death,  molasses and maple syrup (more generally known as "maple molasses" in the 18th century) would stand in.  And these too would tend to make your cake more dense as well. It was also common for cakes to be only slightly sweetened and then studded with dried or sugared fruit - think fruit cake.  Either the dense bricky stuff of English descent - or the new Italian star of the modern American winter holiday scene, panettone 18th century cake American cakes were largely thick, moist things that wer...
Read more

Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money

-
Image
Listen to "064 Milk & Butter Money" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode: Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money The Dairy Maid arrives on the scene.  Unlike so many depictions of this or that type of colonial person or other, which tend to be overly idealized depictions, the representation of Dairy Maids is not too far off. She's going to be seen in a colonial dress (don't forget the cap or head wrap), and apron and carrying pails, hanging out with cows, or seated at a churn.  The main place they miss is giving her slim forearms and shoulders.  Between the milking,  the carrying and the churning, she would be a first pick for any arm-wrestling team.   Colonial Williamsburg did lots of the heavy lifting for me - and has excellent photographs of 18th century dairymaid dress , and the dairy out buildings - as well as longer explanations of how they functioned. Dairy House in Colonial Williamsburg Long eaves and slats - but no windows.  And a stone foundation...
Read more