Go to the Recipe: Half-Candied Blood Orange
very awesome.
Would this be possible by substituting the sugar with honey?
They look great, can I get away with using my foodsaver vacuum sealer instead of a chamber unit?
Made this a few days ago with AWESOME results.
Really glad to read this.
I made this recipe using an orange but it came out very bitter, am I missing something? I am certain that I followed the recipe exactly.
That's surprising. How many times did you blanch the orange in the salted water?
I read the recipe again and the only thing I did differently was chill for a full 3 minutes.
Hmmm. That's very surprising. Did the orange have a very thick rind? Our blood oranges had fairly thin rinds and pith. For a thick-rind orange, I might suggest using a needle to make a large number of small holes all over the surface of the orange.
Can this (and other pickling techniques) be done using the tube attachment on my chamber vacuum with the food in a mason jar? Basically, I'd put say, a cucumber in pickling liquid to cover, put the vacuuming seal on top, and run a vacuum to lower the pressure. Would this operate in the same way as inside a vacuum bag, minus the compression?
What you want to do is pull the vacuum on your rigid jar, let the liquid inside the jar boil, than release the vacuum. It will work well if you can pull a low enough vacuum.
What are the advantages of a single percentage of salt in blanching?
I incorporated this in a dish I created at work. Aerated blood orange curd, almond streusel, meyer lemon sorbet, chocolate grand marnier creme anglaise, shiso, and the half candied blood orange. All my chefs loved the blood orange along with everybody else who tried it. Absolutely going to use this frequently throughout my career.
i have tried this, exactly as same as the recipe, but i skipped the vacuum chamber process because i dont have it at home. I use sunkist orange instead of blood orange also. It taste really nice and balanced sweetness, but it turns slightly bitter after taste. Is this because of the vacuum chamber process or something else? Need help here ! Thank you very much
What do we achieve by vacuum infusing the oranges ten times, besides a mess in the vacuum machine?
just don let d liquid go overflow....
Yes, this is a reply to a 2-year-old comment, but others may see it. Yes, you can use a FoodSaver or other brand home vacuum sealer. The downside is that you if you use the vacuum area that has the sealer, the you have to be careful as the home units tend to pull liquid out of the bag. Even being very careful, pulling multiple vacuums using the regular vacuum edge can get very messy. FoodSaver (or at least my 20+ year old model) has an adapter for pulling a vacuum on a canning-sized jar or other special containers. That removes the mess issue. Some home machines also don't pull quite as much vacuum as a professional model. A chamber sealer is a great tool, but obviously not many home chefs will have one.
Is it important for this recipe to have blood oranges? I did this with normal oranges with quite a thick rind (though not much thicker than on your picture in step 9) and they turned out quite bitter I'm afraid. I used the stiff container of my food saver so I couldn't do this with a vacuum chamber if that might have some impact?
I see, but what will vacuum infusion do for me? Why do we need to do it ten times?
It is call osmosis. The water is taken out from the orange while sugar water gets into the Orange. This is a quick method to exchange liquids.
Hi, I was wondering if we can get those candied blood orange into fizzy state?
Hi guys.! You think you can do this job with other types of fruit? anans, apples .....
thnx
Hi Andrea, we recommend citrus with a thick pith for this recipe (grapefruit, lemons etc.)
Hi Chefs! Great recipe! Mine always comes out bitter - not crazy bitter, just a little challenging for some palates - but it strikes a balance when paired with lots of over the top sweet stuff. Check out what the team and I have made of your recipe:
once again chefs, awesome recipe and your work at Chef Steps is a true inspiration.
P.S, I use regular oranges as blood oranges are only just coming in to season down here in New Zealand
So I tried this recipe and had three different types of citrus: the first was what I'd call large US blood oranges about the size of a normal orange, the second were south american blood oranges about 1/2 the diameter of the US ones, and the third were pink grapefruit slightly smaller than the US blood oranges. The south american blood oranges and the grapefruit had a skin/pith less than 1/2 the thickness of the US ones I happened to buy.
The US ones with the thick pith were bitter, I could taste the sweetness of the simple syrup but the pith overwhelmed it. The smaller blood oranges were great, they had sweetness, freshness, and bite of bitterness but everything seemed balanced, same for the grapefruit. I'm guessing here but maybe the reason some people here got bitter results has to do with the amount of pith and for better results maybe be weary of citrus with excessively thick pith layer.
My use of the Half-candied Blood oranges was as an old fashioned
2 oz Bourbon
2 tsp syrup the blood oranges are bagged in
2-3 dashes bitters ( I used DashFire Old Fashioned Bitters)
1 Bourbon cherry (since I had them on hand)
Nice chunky ice (I used what I had but it melted faster than I would have liked)
Not radically different from a standard old fashioned but very pretty and tasty
I'm tempted to try pairing slivers with duck breast or duck breast prosciutto but getting the balance right might be fiddly, worth a shot.
Thanks for another great recipe, ChefSteps is my favourite food site and so useful!
If you don't have a vacuum chamber, could you let the oranges sit in the syrup for a long period instead? If so, how long?
how long are they going to be eatable? like up to a month?
I would like to make these but don't have a vacuum sealer, will it still work if I skip those steps? Would I just sous-vide it longer?
replying to this six year old comment in case someone finds it later. Yes, it is possible (and historically proven) to make candied fruit with honey - you just have to adjust for a different brix value. I think any sugar or syrup might work, but you might be in uncharted territory trying something very distant from the origins like agave syrup or palm sugar, especially flavour-wise.
Can we get an answer to this question? What if you just have a Food Saver? Would a whipping siphon pressurized also work before sealing?
Hi Daniel, with this process you do need to have a vacuum sealer. with out it you would need to follow the old School approach the will take a few weeks.
Thanks for the quick response, Kyl. When you say vacuum sealer, do you mean the chambered one in the video? Or would a FoodSaver with a mason jar attachment be able to produce similar results? Otherwise, could you explain the "old school" approach? Is that just making candied oranges and stopping half-way? There are several questions on this page asking how long to let them sit if you don't have a vacuum sealer. It would be nice to get an answer on how to do it without such a niche piece of equipment. Thanks!
I tried this with cara cara oranges and peel was just too bitter and i couldnt find any recipes even outside chef steps that takes weeks to make. Any ideas?
