Anna's Candied Rinds:
Making candied rinds requires a bit of time & energy, but the results are absolutely satisfying. People will keep asking you to make more. This old-time recipe of candied orange rinds has been revamped to be more novel & scrumptious, and will have you feeling a little bit more like Martha.
Items needed:
2 medium saucepans
1 large saucepan (with a wide mouth)
2 cookie sheets
2 cooling racks
2 ladles (with holes)
Paring knife
Tongs
1 large bowl
1 and 1/2 measuring cups
approx 6-7 cups of sugar
2 navel oranges
2 lemons
2 limes
7-8 strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
Canning jars/plastic container for storage
THE DIRECTIONS:
For all rinds: the set-up
1. wash & dry fruit.
2. Cut horizontally & vertically across the entire fruit.
3. Peel all four sections off the fruit, being very careful not to rip the rinds.
(Save your fruit in a container to be used for different purposes, like orange juice or lemon/limes for your water. No need to waste.)
4. Cut both ends of the rinds so they look rectangular.
5. Slice the rinds length-wise, 1/8'' thick each. You'll get about 5 slices per rind section.
6. Cut off any excess pith (or the actual fruit) off the inside of the rind with your pairing knife to make all of the rinds look uniform.
7. Place your rinds in their own medium saucepan. I mixed lemons & limes together, but boiled the orange rinds separate. You can boil them all together, or mix and match as you see fit. Just remember that orange rinds smell & taste very different than the citrus scent of lemons and limes though.
8. Fill the sauce pan(s) with
cold water, until it covers the rinds. Turn the heat on
high and turn off only until the water rapidly boils.
9. Drain & rinse the rinds. Put the fruit back into its pan again.
10. Boil fruit this time for
40 minutes, until rinds are completely soft. (Limes might need to boil longer, believe it or not. It has a tougher rind.) Rinds should be flimsy and almost translucent.
11. Drain and rinse rinds.
Continue instructions according to type of rinds:Berry-Orange Rinds:Everyone's favorite!!12. Pour 2.5 cups of cold water into a large wide-mouth saucepan. Turn the heat on
high. 13. Pour 2 cups of sugar into the pan and dissolve. Stir mixture well with your ladle. Add rinds, sliced strawberries & blueberries.
14. Turn the heat on
Medium-low and boil for 40-60 minutes until the water has turned into a thick syrup.
Stir often.Lemon & Lime Rinds:12. Pour 2.5 cups of cold water into a medium saucepan. Turn the heat on
high.
13. Pour 2 cups of sugar into the pan and dissolve. Stir mixture well with your ladle. Add rinds.
14. Turn the heat on
Medium-low and boil for 40-60 minutes until the water has turned into a thick syrup.
Stir often.
Finishing:
15. Place your cookie sheet under your cooling racks. Using tongs, fish through your berry-orange mixture to grab your rinds. Place all rinds onto one cooling rack (call this the "sticky rack"), being careful not to let the sticky rinds touch eachother. For lemon/lime rinds without a berry-mixture, just grab the rinds and put them on the cooling rack in the same manner.
16. Let rinds cool for about 5 minutes.
17. Pour a couple cups of sugar in a large bowl (the deeper, the better). Start coating your lemon/lime rinds first with sugar, because it's less messy. The easiest method is place several rinds in the bowl and give the bowl a good few shakes to evenly coat the rinds.
18. Line-up all sugar-coated rinds neatly onto your "clean cooling rack."
19. Let the rinds sit overnight to harden more, and package them into mason jars, or whatever you have on hand. Enjoy!
Note: You can blend your berry syrup together to use as an ice cream topper if you'd like.
