How to peel an orange: life hacks for citrus lovers

Bright juicy citrus filled with sun and vitamins lifts your spirits just by its appearance. However, many remain only to contemplate this sweet and sour fruit. But the reason is that you simply don’t want to clean it. You don’t want to splash everything around so that your hands are sticky and your nails are yellow. But there is a way out! We will reveal all the secrets of how to peel an orange without difficulty and splashes. And now you will never refuse delicious citrus just because you don’t want to peel it. Moreover, you will want to try these methods right away!

How to properly peel an orange

To begin with, it is worth noting that the orange must be ripe and fresh. Its color is bright orange, heavy in weight, without mechanical damage. If the orange is unripe, its peel will be light, sometimes greenish. Needless to say, it will be quite difficult to clean it of pulp? But a wrinkled, dried fruit, in addition to difficult cleaning, will also taste spoiled.

To peel a citrus fruit you need:

• Wash and wipe the fruit dry.
• Cut off the top of one side of the fruit. Just a little bit so as not to cut into the flesh.
• Then, holding the fruit with one hand, we insert the thumb of the other hand slightly under the edge of the skin. Not deep.
• Twist the orange so that your finger separates the pulp from the skin, plunging inside.
• When the pulp has been separated along the entire length of the finger, we simply separate the skin from the fruit.
• The orange is peeled. All that remains is to remove the white partitions and divide them into slices.

Right choice

Half the success in peeling oranges is choosing the right fruit in the store.
Ripe, healthy oranges are much easier to peel than underripe or overripe ones. Therefore, it is worth carefully monitoring what ends up in your grocery cart. The best quality ripe orange has bright orange, evenly colored peel. It feels like a firm ball to the touch and has no darkening or wrinkled areas. Too soft, darkish spots on the peel indicate that this fruit has begun the process of rotting. You should not buy such fruits; they can be hazardous to health and cause food poisoning. And when cleaning and cutting, they can even fall apart in your hands.

How to peel an orange with a knife

If you don’t want to get your hands dirty at all, then a knife can come to the rescue to peel the citrus:

• Wash the orange and wipe dry. We scald the fruit with boiling water so that the skin that needs to be removed can more easily separate from the pulp.

• Using a knife, cut off one of the tops of the thick peel. With this simple technique we determine how thick it is.

• Now from the cut in a spiral we make an incision with a knife to the second pole. Let the width of the strip be 2.5 centimeters, then it will not tear and can be easily removed.

• Then we grab the top edge and carefully separate the skin from the pulp. You will get one long strip if the citrus is fresh.

This method is also worth peeling oranges with thick and very dense skin. But with a thin surface this method will not be so convenient. The flesh of the fruit can be easily damaged.

Adviсe

To learn how to peel oranges correctly, you should know about some recommendations:

1. It is advisable not to purchase fruits that have small labels on them.
2. You should not leave fruits next to other foods.
3. The zest helps freshen up a room when left in it for a few days.
4. When you buy sour oranges, you don't have to throw them away right away. They make jam, compote, jelly, and sauce.
5. To keep them longer, you can sometimes take them out of the refrigerator and leave them at room conditions for a while.
6. The white intermediate part imparts bitterness, so it is better to remove it.
7. If you rub the peel with vegetable oil, the shelf life will increase.

Oranges are unique fruits that contain a huge amount of useful elements. However, in order to clean them quickly and without any splashes, you will need a few skills and a little experience.

Orange Peeling Method Using a Spoon

This method of peeling an orange requires a knife and a flat tablespoon:

• Wash and wipe the ripe citrus.
• Then you need to cut off the tops from both poles of the fruit, being careful not to touch the pulp. You don't have to cut off the tops if you need whole peel halves for cooking and filling with dessert.
• We draw 2 circular cuts with a knife: the first will be located in the middle of the poles, and the second along the equator of the fruit. The cuts must be connected and intersect each other in two places. On fruit with rough skin, it is better to make more cuts.
• Now you need a spoon. We insert it under the skin into one of the cuts and separate the top from the pulp. And so every piece.

• It is necessary to separate carefully, do not press on the pulp, so as not to splash with juice.

• To ensure that the juice does not get on your hands and the table, you can put a paper napkin in your hand with the orange.

Other uses of citrus peels

Home freshener

Take the peels of two oranges, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, a spoon of ground cloves and 3 cinnamon sticks. Fill a saucepan with water and two tablespoons of vinegar, add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and cook until the mixture starts to become fragrant. The advantages of such a natural air freshener are obvious: it is cheap, natural and helps not only to distribute a pleasant aroma, but also to humidify the air. Here are more options.

Orange candle

To do this you will need an orange, olive oil and a knife. When you remove the skin from the orange, the main thing is not to damage its “tail”, because it will be the wick. Then pour oil inside the crust, saturate the wick well with oil and set it on fire.

Body Scrub

You will need ¾ cup granulated sugar, 4 tablespoons almond butter, 1 spoon olive oil and the peel of one orange. Grate the orange peels on a very fine grater, mix them with sugar, and then add oil. The resulting mixture can be used as a natural body scrub.

Orange bath oil

To make orange oil, you will need 20 orange peels, vodka and a jar with a tight-fitting lid.

How to beautifully peel an orange for table decoration

To beautifully decorate your holiday table, there are 2 ways to peel an orange in an original way.

The first way is to make a flower:

• Wash and dry the orange.
• From the pole where the stalk was, we make cuts to the other, but without cutting to the end. You can make 6-8 of them. Depending on how big your fruit is.
• Then, carefully prying the tip, remove the “petals”, revealing the citrus in the form of a flower. Moreover, you can open it either a little (to make a half bud) or almost to the end (an open flower).

The second way to peel citrus is suitable for those who want to make beautiful bowls from orange peel. You can pour jelly into them, cut fruit salad or put candles in them:

• We wash and wipe the fruit.
• We determine the equator of the citrus and slowly make a circular cut with a confident movement.
• Then we take a spoon or carefully push it under the peel with our fingers and separate it in a circle from the pulp. It is important to do this carefully so as not to tear the skin.
• Then tear off the skin from the pulp in the place where the ovary and stalk were.

Orange juice, peel

Orange juice improves metabolism in the body and tones. It is very useful for children and those with diabetes. People of all ages drink it with pleasure, the main thing is that you are not allergic to citrus fruits. Doctors recommend making orange juice at home every day if you feel a loss of energy, often in a bad mood, fatigue, or vitamin deficiency. It stimulates an excellent appetite and quenches thirst very well. Especially in cool summers or in patients with fever.

What is orange zest? This is the top crust, which is cut off from the orange in a thin layer. The white layer is not captured. It is used as a spice. It tastes good in drinks, a variety of baked goods, etc. It feels rough to the touch. If you need fresh, then grate it directly from a washed orange. The zest tastes sweet and sour with bitterness and is very aromatic.

If you need zest, you can grate it, dry it and store it in linen bags or special jars for spices. It is added to salad for flavor. Can be used instead of sauce, French mustard, mayonnaise to give the dish a piquant taste.

From orange peel you can make:

• Zest.
• Infusions.
• Candied fruit.
• Jam.
• Leave the dried slices.

Liqueurs are made in Florence and Bologna. Dried peel slices can be thrown into the fireplace in winter. A wonderful aroma will spread throughout the room and your mood will improve. This is especially fabulous for New Year or Christmas. The smell of orange peels is poorly tolerated not only by pets, but also by flies and mosquitoes.

You can spread the peels on the kitchen counter, which will discourage them. If you like the smell of oranges, pack the crushed peel into bags and hang it around your room.

A pleasant, favorite aroma will be in your home in winter and summer. How to beautifully cut an orange for a holiday table? Can be added to a salad in neat cubes. On separate plates with circles and crescents. The thickness is approximately 1 cm. This piece can be used to decorate cocktails. Orange is a very healthy fruit. Now you know how to quickly peel and cut it properly.

How to peel an orange from the film

If you need a beautiful orange fillet for a salad without films and with minimal loss of juice, then it is better to peel the fruit like this:

• We wash and dry the citrus.
• Take a sharp knife and cut off the tops of the orange ball.
• Now, using a knife from top to bottom, from one pole to the other, cut off part of the peel along with a small part of the pulp. And so on in a circle until you have cleaned all the skin. With this cleaning there will be very little juice.

• Then we place the fruit so that it is convenient for us to remove the slices. Use a knife to separate the pulp, first from the right side of the segment, and then from the left.

• Repeat this with each slice, getting a beautiful orange fillet. With this cleaning method, we will be able to preserve the juice in slices.

There is another trick to peel citrus in 10 seconds. You need to cut off the tops of the citrus, grabbing some of the pulp to identify the segments. Make a cut along one segment of the peel or to the middle of the fruit. Then, with your fingers, taking the ends of the cut, clearly and confidently stretch the edges to the sides. Then the orange will beautifully open into slices. This method only works with ripe, elastic fruit and with clear, quick movements. Now you know how easy it is to clean citrus fruits without getting dirty or getting sweet juice on the surfaces.

Salad "Tsarskiy"

In the most varied variations of the recipe for this appetizer, only exquisite varieties of fish and cheese, squid and, of course, red caviar are present. Such non-trivial products create a unique salad, worthy of a royal table in taste and presentation.

Ingredients

• red caviar - 140 g;
• hard cheese - 150 g;
• six eggs;
• squid - 450 g;
• shrimp - 100 g;
• crab meat - 200 g;
• four potatoes;
• mayonnaise;
• greenery.

Crab meat in the salad can be replaced with sticks, salmon or crayfish tails.

How many calories?

Step-by-step instruction

1. Boil the squid, peel and chop into small cubes.
2. Chop crab sticks in the same way.
3. Boil the shrimp, leave a little for decoration, and peel and finely chop the rest.
4. Finely grate boiled chicken eggs.
5. Boil the potatoes, peel them and grate them coarsely.
6. Also grate the cheese.
7. Combine the prepared snack components in one container, add mayonnaise, mix thoroughly.
8. Place the salad in a round bowl, compact well and turn over onto a flat dish.
9. Sprinkle the appetizer with red caviar on top. You can decorate this salad with shrimp, pieces of salmon or halves of quail eggs. Decorate the bottom of the dish with herbs.

Tsarsky salad can also be served in portions using tartlets or special serving rings.

You can watch how to prepare this holiday salad on the 27TRK channel.