Oranges & Lemons Said the Bells of Vellano!
The Scent is Fantastic
Some readers will be familiar with the song, ‘Orange and Lemons Said the Bells of St Clement’s’. St. Clements’s may be St Clement Danes or St Clement Eastcheap in London both of which are near the wharves where merchants landed their citrus fruits. The tune is also reminiscent of change ringing or bell ringing and St Clement Danes rings out this tune to this day.
I had forgotten it is a singing game or dance where you were ‘out’ if the arc of hands came down on you and you were then ‘out’ to the words, ‘And here comes a chopper to chop off your head‘. The game was sung on festival days, on which bells would be rung.
This leads me to my problem as there are so many oranges and lemons on our citrus plants this January I wondered what to do with orange skins.
We have had orange juice, orange fruit cocktail and ice cream, zest in cakes and one idea was to make candied peal with the skins. Instead of composting it all, which is not advised as it can make you compost acid and thus your soil acidic. Very difficult to put right!!
So below is a method for making Citrus Candied Peel
4 Oranges
4 & a half cups of water
2 and a half cups of sugar
Sugar for coating
1. Cut the orange peel with the pith taken away with a knife into 6cm by half a cm strips. Do not worry if there is a little pith left on the peel.
Cut into Strips
2. Add water, sugar and peel strips in a wide pan and bring to the boil.
Simply add water & Sugar
3. Simmer for 1 hour or so until the mixture of fruit and sugar syrup goes a little bit golden but before it turns to caramel!!
Simmer for 30 – 45 Mins
4. Remove from the syrup and place on a bed of sugar. Leave for a few minutes to cool. Then sprinkle with sugar and roll the candied peel in the sugar with the flat of your hand.
Dry Over Night or in a Warm Oven
5. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper and then put in a warm oven to dry. If you leave them on the kitchen table over night they dry just the same.
6. Keep in a air tight jar.
They are delicious.
Keep in an Air Tight Jar
Top Tip: You can also dip half of each strip in chocolate! Enjoy.
Links:
Oranges and Lemons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons
St Clement Danes: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Clement_Danes
St Clement Eastcheap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Clement%27s,_Eastcheap