Bitter Orange Syrup
My latest attempt to make my backyard oranges consumable is by far my most effective yet!
I haven’t written much about it in a while, but for 5 winters now I’ve been dead-set on finding something to do with the bitter oranges that grow in our backyard that isn’t making cochinita pibil. Cochinita pibil is delicous, but it’s intense - 3 trees give off more oranges than we can consume as cochinita pibil…
While some early attempts were ok, I’ve struggled managing the extreme bitterness in regardes to cocktails. Here’s a primer on what these things are:
Our fruit is finally ripe this year (at least it seems like it is, tough to test when they’re darn near inedible…), and I finally had a good idea that worked!
Now, I had previously tried something like this. I’ve made many spiced syrups where I call for the rinds to be added directly to the water and sugar (and in one case then have the candied rinds dried out for garnish). Unfortunately, when I’ve tried that with these bitter oranges, the rinds are so bitter that they make the whole mixture stringent (and they’re not edible even when boiled and candied).
So this time, I took a different track. Instead of doing it all at once, I decided to stage this out:
Peel the oranges with as little pith as possible
Boil the rinds in water for a half hour to make a strong “tea”
Strain out the rinds and add the same amount of turbinado sugar to the “tea”
Bottle the incorporated syrup
When you’re peeling the oranges, you get the same high-ester hit that happens with young lemons. They’re so stringent. But after boiling in the water for a while, the acid seems to go away and the nose becomes much more floral. You can also taste a bit of sweetness there. To be clear, the tea is still incredibly bitter, but it’s no longer like you’re just sucking on a lemon.
As a “simple” syrup, this is very bright. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Aperol, with bitter orange sweetness dominating. You lose some of the grassy richness of the sugar as the profile brightens, but this stuff is super delicious.
I think you could probably replace a standard syrup with this just about anywhere and be happy with the results. I’m not drinking much right now, and so the primary use has been a 1-to-4 mix with fresh soda water for a nicer “true soda” in the afternoons that is truly delicious.
I’ll find something a bit more fun to do with it soon…