Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Citrus Peel along with all the Citrus Peel containing recipes presented on this site, with 612 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

The use of citrus peel (or zest) in European and many North African and Asian cuisines is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget that these, also, are spices. Most commonly orange, lemon and lime peels are used, though grapefruit peel can also be an addition to some foods. In terms of species orange is Citrus sinensis, lemon is Citrus × limon and typically lime is either key lime Citrus aurantifolia (yellower in colour) or the commoner Persian lime (larger and greener in colour) Citrus × latifolia. The Mandarin orange Citrus reticulata (such as clementines) is also often used in dessert foods and cakes. All these fruit belong to the genus Citrus of the Rutaceae (citrus) family. The image show here gives slivers and piles of orange peel and zest, lemon peel and zest and lime peel and zest, respectively.

The peels of citrus fruit consist of two layers. An outer pericarp (the zest) which contains the aromatic oils of the fruit and an inner mesocarp that contains no essential oil, but which has a number of bitter flavone glycosides and coumarin derivatives. Lemons were actually brought to Europe by the crusades and all Medieval references to 'lemon' actually mean the very aromatic, but juice-free citron. Pickled lemon is a feature of North African (particularly Moroccan) cuisine.

Unlike lemons, limes tend to be harvested unripe (when green, they turn yellow on ripening) and the zest and juice are the parts used. In the Gulf States, Iran and Northern India, however, limes are often boiled in salt water and then sun dried to yield a spice known as loomi [‫لومي‬] which are used in meat and bean dishes. Though in Iran and Northern India they are used to give rice a distinctly citrusy note (and they are often used instead of sumac).

Orange zest is used in a wide range of dishes, particularly desserts and cakes. However, like lemon, orange peel and zest has the property of softening other flavours, particularly strong ones. This makes orange an especially good accompaniment to game meats such as venison (see the recipe for Cumberland sauce below). Bitter oranges, such as the Seville orange are also employed to make conserves, marmalades and are candied to make candied orange peel.

Peels and zests of all citrus species have a floral aroma which is useful both in sweet dishes and in curries. However, the pith of the whole peel has a bitter overtone, though this is important in certain dishes and products such as British marmalades (typically made of Seville oranges, but can also be made with limes, grapefruit or any mixture of these). In cookery lemon zest is probably the most ubiquitous in its use though lime is gaining in importance due to increasing interest in south-east Asian cuisine and oranges peels and zests are often used in desserts and sweet foods. Indeed, orange peel can be a common ingredient in French Bouquet garni. The zests of oranges and limes go particularly well in combination with chocolate.

During the Middle Ages dried peels were a common European ingredient, though today the availability of fresh citrus fruit has almost done away with the use of dried peel (but it is still found in some North African and Middle Eastern recipes). It survives, however, in traditional lemon pepper, where ground pepper is mixed with ground lemon peel. Dried kaffir lime zest is also an important component of Réunionaise cuisine (the cookery of the island of Réunion, West Africa). However, candied peel (peel preserved in sugar), which came to prevalence in the Georgian and Victorian periods are still used for many cakes, breads and desserts. It is hard to imagine any of the world's major cuisines that does not feature citrus peels and zests in one way or another and it's largely because of their ubiquity in cooking that we forget that these peels are all forms of spices. Indeed, the outer pericarps (corresponding to the peels) of the related species Zanthoxylum piperitum and Zanthoxylum tessmannii give us Sichuan Pepper and Uzazi, respectively.

Citrus peel is composed of two layers: the outermost layer (pericarp, "zest") contains an essential oil (6%), that is mostly composed of limonene (90%) and citral (5%) plus traces of citronellal, α-terpineol, linalyl and geranyl acetate. The inner layer (meso­carp), on the other hand, contains no essen­tial oil but a variety of bitter flavone glyco­sides and coumarin deriv­atives.

Citron Citrus medica

The citron (Citrus medica), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough, lemon'. It is one of the original citrus fruit from which all other citrus types developed through natural hybrid speciation or artificial hybridization. Though citron cultivars take on a wide variety of physical forms, they are all closely related genetically. It is used in Asian and Mediterranean cuisine, traditional medicines, perfume, and religious rituals and offerings. Hybrids of citrons with other citrus are commercially more prominent, notably lemons and many limes.

The citron fruit is usually ovate or oblong, narrowing towards the stylar end. However, the citron's fruit shape is highly variable, due to the large quantity of albedo, which forms independently according to the fruits' position on the tree, twig orientation, and many other factors. The rind is leathery, furrowed, and adherent. The inner portion is thick, white and hard; the outer is uniformly thin and very fragrant. The pulp is usually acidic, but also can be sweet, and some varieties are entirely pulpless.

While the lemon and orange are primarily peeled to consume their pulpy and juicy segments, the citron's pulp is dry, containing a small quantity of juice, if any. The main content of a citron fruit is its thick white rind, which adheres to the segments and cannot easily be separated from them. The citron gets halved and depulped, then its rind (the thicker the better) is cut into pieces. Those are cooked in sugar syrup and used as a spoon sweet known in Greek as 'kitro glyko' (κίτρο γλυκό), or diced and candied with sugar and used as a confection in cakes. In Italy, a soft drink called 'Cedrata' is made from the fruit. The dried and powdered rind of citron used to be a common ingredient in Cornish cookery for flavouring cakes.

Satsuma Citrus unshiu



Citrus unshiu is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as miyagawa mandarin, unshu mikan, cold hardy mandarin, satsuma mandarin, satsuma orange, naartjie [in South Africa], Christmas orange and tangerine (though the term 'tangerine' should be more accurately applied to Citrus tangerina cultivars). During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikan was the most popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu (Satsuma) without seeds made people more prone to infertility. Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period. It was introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in 1878.

Genetic studies conducted in the 2010s suggest that the maternal species of Citrus unshiu is kishu (Citrus kinokuni) and the paternal species is kunenbo (Citrus nobilis Lour. var. kunip). Citrus unshiu is one of the sweetest citrus varieties. It is usually seedless, and is about the size of other mandarin oranges (Citrus reticulata). Satsumas are known for their loose, leathery skin; the fruit is very easily peeled in comparison to other citrus fruits. The rind is often smooth to slightly rough with the shape of a medium to small flattened sphere. Satsumas usually have 10 to 12 easily separable segments with tough membranes. The flesh is particularly delicate, and cannot withstand the effects of careless handling. Colouring of the fruit is often dependent on climate; satsumas grown in humid areas may be ripe while the skin is still green while those grown in areas with cool night temperatures may see a brilliant reddish orange skin at peak.

Satsumas are cold-hardy, and when planted in colder locations, the fruit becomes sweeter from the colder temperatures. A mature satsuma tree can survive down to −9 °C (15 °F) or even −11 °C (12 °F) for a few hours. Of the edible citrus varieties, only the kumquat is more cold-hardy. Satsumas rarely have any thorns, an attribute that also makes them popular. They can be grown from seed, which takes about eight years until the first fruits are produced, or grafted onto other citrus rootstocks, such as trifoliate orange.

As a spice, the dried peel is used in Chinese cuisine and the dried and powdered peel is used in Japanese spice blends. The dried and powdered peels of naartjies are also occasionally used in South African cookery.

Pomelo Citrus maxima

The pomelo is the largest citrus fruit, and the principal ancestor of the grapefruit. It is a natural, non-hybrid, citrus fruit, native to Southeast Asia. Similar in taste to a sweet grapefruit, the pomelo is commonly consumed and used for festive occasions throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia. As with the grapefruit, phytochemicals in the pomelo have the potential for drug interactions.

The fruit is large, 15–25 cm (6–10 in) in diameter, usually weighing 1–2 kilograms (2–4 pounds). It has a thicker rind than a grapefruit, and is divided into 11 to 18 segments. The flesh tastes like mild grapefruit, with a little of its common bitterness (the grapefruit is a hybrid of the pomelo and the orange). The enveloping membranes around the segments are chewy and bitter, considered inedible, and usually discarded. There are at least sixty varieties. The fruit generally contains a few, relatively large seeds, but some varieties have numerous seeds.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of the word "pomelo" is uncertain.[8] It may be derived from Dutch pompelmoes (this is supported by the use of pumplenose or pampelmouse for pomelo during the Victorian era). Its botanical name, Citrus maxima, means "the biggest citrus". In English, the word "pomelo" (also spelt pummelo, pumelo, pomello, pommelo) has become the more common name, although "pomelo" has historically been used for grapefruit. After introduction into Barbados by 'Captain Shaddock' of the East India Company (apparently Philip Chaddock, who visited the island in the late 1640s), the fruit was called shaddock in English (for more information see the Indian Cookery Book entry for pumplenose).

In culinary usage, The juice can be drunk, and the rind is used to make preserves, or may be candied.[4] In Brazil, the thick skin may be used for making a sweet conserve, while the spongy pith of the rind is discarded. In Sri Lanka, it is often eaten as a dessert, sometimes sprinkled with sugar. In large parts of Southeast Asia where pomelo is native, it is commonly eaten as a dessert, often sprinkled with salt or dipped in a salt mixture, but it may instead be made into salads. In the Philippines, a pink beverage is made from pomelo and pineapple juice

The pomelo is the ancestor of many citrus types. Indeed, the common sweet orange (Citrus × sinensis) is a pomelo × mandarin hybrid. Genomic evidence has now shown that the grapefruit is a back cross of pomelo × sweet orange (which is why over 63% of the grapefruit genome is derived from pomelo). The bitter orange (Citrus × aurantium) is another pomelo × mandarin hybrid and the tangelo (ugli fruit) is a hybrid between pomelo or grapefruit and any tangerine; it generally has a thicker skin than a tangerine and is less sweet.