Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Project Nowaste - Candied orange peels

Chocolate dipped candied orange peelsLately, I've been analyzing everything that goes into our food waste bin, making sure that food that is edible gets eaten before it goes bad. I've already discussed in great detail my butter making forays. But now I'm looking at things that generally aren't considered edible and seeing what I can do with them, too.

This one isn't too hard a stretch of the imagination, but when my husband got a bug in his ass about making Harvey Wallbangers (thanks, NY Times), we had all these orange peels leftover as a result. Not one to just want to throw them in the compost, I decided to make candied orange peels instead.

So, I took a recipe by my husband's favorite Italian food personality and adapted it a little.

Orange-infused simple syrupThe recipe and blow-by-blow instructions are available over on Crunchy Chicken Cooks if you want to see what it takes to make these delectable little chunks of food waste.

For those of you wondering what I did with the sugar syrup that the peels were boiled in, well, waste not want not! I strained the sugar syrup (that is now infused with some serious orangeness) and bottled it. If you do this yourself, make sure you refrigerate it. This can be used as an orange-infused simple syrup in a number of drinks or cocktails.

15 comments:

Deb G said...

My mom has made candied orange peel for as long as I can remember and ever since I've had my own place to live, I make it too. We don't dip it in chocolate though. It is super yummy.

I like to put the orange syrup in my tea.

organicneedle said...

My grandmother always made potpourri out of dried citrus peels. A great first sewing project, and lesson in practical conservation, for the wee ones is to dry out some pleasant smelly things and sew up little bean bags of the stuff. Reduce your compost, teach a practical skill, and use up those annoying little fabric scraps. They make great gifts from the kids. And depending on how you feel about your relatives...you can adjust which scents you use from your compost.:)

Chile said...

Candied grapefruit peel is good, too, and I'll probably be making some candied lemon peel from the neighbor's fruit.

We use the leftover syrup over pancakes and the leftover sugar (from the final rolling) in future baking.

Lisa Zahn said...

Oh yummy! What a great idea. Surely this is what our ancestors did. Used everything!

jewishfarmer said...

I haven't made candied orange peel in a while, but I used to all the time, especially when my first two boys were young - it was a candy I didn't have to share with them ;-). Thanks for the reminder - right now, we've been sticking them in the pot on the stove to perfume the house while the woodstove is going, but I should candy some.

Sharon

Anonymous said...

I have been talking about making my grandmother's candied orange peel for a month. I have great memories of helping her make this for holiday gifts. I love the idea of using the orange syrup. Thanks for the memories of my grandmother.

Jenna said...

If you are looking for a use for the syrup (chile is right about the wonderfullness that is this stuff over pancakes) try it in black tea.

If you like the orangy tea blends out there (I use to buy Constant Comment by the ton) it subs in wonderfully. Now, I can just by the loose black tea and skip the waste of the bags, pouches, and boxes.

(Also adds an amazing "something" to glazed carrots and parsnips.)

Theresa said...

Mmm..this sounds delicious! I will have to try it out. I was also reading in a local health food magazine that dried orange peel is good firestarter material because of the oil in the peel. I will have try that also the next time I am starting the woodstove without any embers left.

Anonymous said...

You can also use that orange infused syrup to pep up pound cake. Just poke a few holes in your pound cake while it is still warm and pour the syrup over. It makes for a very moist, delicately flavored pound cake.

I use the syrup left from boiling sour cherries to flavor my pound cake. Cheaper than Kirschwasser and just as effective.

I also use it to flavor brownies, sugar cookies or any pastry.

Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Not the season for it, but it can also go into homemade ice cream flavoring! Yum.

Hm, all this talk is making me hungry. Is anyone finding "Project Nowaste" at odds with their personal losing weight goals? boohoo.

Anonymous said...

I've made these at Christmas for years, and they are a BIG hit.

BoysMom said...

I got a bag of organic grapefruits today at the co-op. I'll have to try this. I remember my grandmother sent my mother a box of candied citrus peals when I was a child, and I loved them.
My kids love grapefruits, but I never thought of making anything out of the peals before.

Riana Lagarde said...

this is super, i love to make them and dip them into chocolate too. i am constantly trying to think of inventive ways to use up all my food scraps too. we use everything twice or three times before it finally goes to the compost pile.

Anonymous said...

Can you use clementine or tangerine peels?

Amanda said...

Wow, I got behind on your blog, and now I'm feeling really dumb for just dumping a dozen orange rinds in the compost bin yesterday after the kids squeezed juice.

Now I know -- check Crunchy Chicken for ideas before I throw ANYTHING away!