Orange-butter Sauce for Breakfast Omelets

[project]

Am making an orange-butter sauce for breakfast omelets and would like suggestions for improvements:

Got a bag of seedless, organic, navel oranges: They

o have a LOT of orange flavor, especially in the rind,

o are sour.

So, took one orange and

o washed and dried,

o used coarse hand grater and removed outer layer of peel,

o cut orange in half, and

o juiced the halves.

In Teflon skillet. combined

o grated peel, about 1 T,

o 1 T sugar

o 2 T butter

o the juice

and over high heat, with constant swirling, melted butter, dissolved sugar, reduced to a light syrup.

It's okay.

Still a little sour.

How to improve it?

[emilyr]

A little more sugar? Can't hurt to try. Maybe 2 T instead of 1? Or maybe the zest of 2 oranges but only the juice of one (if that's where the source of the sourness is).

[project]

emilyr:

My late wife's name was Emily.

Thanks for the help.

Yes, I intend to try 2 T of sugar for the next trial.

And I also intend actually to measure the volume of the peel and the juice so that others now and myself some months from now will have a better idea just what I'm doing.

I was wondering if I was somehow missing something, e.g., beyond just an extra 1 T of sugar? E.g., while the oranges have a LOT of flavor, maybe cooks with experience with such sauces would say that such sour oranges are hopeless and I should get some sweeter oranges.

Or, maybe I should just be trying to make an orange flavored sugar syrup in which case a lot more sugar might be appropriate.

Or, there are some classic French orange-butter sauces and maybe I should be trying to borrow from those.

Also, I am unsure of what oranges would or would not be good for such a sauce.

[dockhl]

Maybe a teensy bit of vanilla to mellow it?

[project]

Second Trial:

Continued with same bag of oranges.

So, took one orange and

o washed and dried,

o used coarse hand grater and removed outer layer of peel,

o cut orange in half, and

o juiced the halves.

In Teflon skillet. combined

o grated peel, packed, it measured just over 1 t

o 2 T sugar

o 2 T unsalted butter

o the juice, about 1 t short of 1/4 C

and over high heat, with constant swirling, melted butter, dissolved sugar, reduced to a light syrup, final volume

1/4 C

but to get this volume did use rubber spatula to wipe the sauce from the Teflon surface.

The sauce was much better than before, more viscous than before, with better flavor, well on the way to being good.

The orange used this time was from the same bag but, still, seemed sweeter than the one used before.

The sauce was good on an omelet made from 6 eggs and 1 T of butter. Good breakfast.

Once cooled to room temperature, the sauce was a soft candy, no longer a viscous liquid, and tasted good by itself.

dockhl:

Vanilla? WOW! Would NEVER have thought of that. Will try it tomorrow! Thanks!

[Shalmanese]

Look up some classic recipes for Crepe Suzette. Some tips:

Rub sugar over the orange peel to extract some orange oil.

Add a shot of Triple Sec/Cointreu at the end and flame.

[paulraphael]

For this kind of thing I'll often forget about using fresh fruit and make the sauce with preserves or marmalade. The reason is that if you're going to take a lot of juice and zest and boil it way down, that's pretty much what you're making. There's little benefit to using a beautiful, fresh piece of fruit if you're basically going to cook down into a preserve. You can let someone else do that work for you, and use your fresh oranges for something where they'll be appreciated.

If you do go with the fresh oranges, the first thing to consider is if you're grating too deep and getting some of the white pith along with the zest. That will make anything too sour and bitter. More sugar would help. Shalmanese's idea of using some liqueur sounds good too.

[project]

dockhl:

This morning, after the sauce was made and off the heat, I added 1/4 t of vanilla extract and stirred it in.

You are correct: The vanilla did noticeably 'round out' the flavor. It's a good addition. Might even get by with 1/8 t.

Thanks!

Shalmanese:

Thanks!

Yes, since my first post, I went to Google and looked for orange-butter sauces. Curiously, my post was on the first page of results!

So much for Google using only their 'page ranking' algorithm: Clearly now they have additional means of 'ranking' Web pages and, curiously, (A) are 'parsing' out the individual posts to eG threads and (B) using the 'perma-links' with those posts. Sounds like Google thinks a lot of eG.

Yes, back when Crepe Suzette was popular, I made the dish several times. And I have a bottle of Grand Marnier. So, it did occur to me that there might be a connection between what I am trying to do, mostly just by guessing, to get some orange flavor in some breakfast omelets and old Crepe Suzette techniques. And the flavor did remind me of Crepe Suzette and also orange souffles.

Here the vanilla idea is improving on those classic French ideas!

From the Google search, etc., you are correct: My orange-butter sauce is a close cousin of a lot of orange-butter sauces, even some with soy sauce!

The effort this morning didn't work as well as I wanted:

-- Same bag of oranges, but the grated orange peel I got, packed, measured about 80% of 1 T and, thus, was much more than the 1 t of the second trial I reported above.

-- The orange juice I got from that orange measured about 1 T short of 1/2 C and, thus, was much more than the 1/4 cup t of the second trial I reported above.

-- The final sauce, reduced enough to be a syrup, measured about 2 T less than 1/2 C and, thus, was more than the 1/4 C of the second trial I reported above. When the sauce cooled to room temperature, it was more like a sticky goo -- reminded me of orange marmalade -- and less like a crumbling soft candy.

-- The flavor was too harsh, basically less good than the second trial I reported above. Apparently with so much peel and juice, need more sugar.

So, next trial will try to standardize on 2 t of peel, 1/3 C of juice, 3 T of sugar, and about 1/8 t of vanilla extract.

When this direction is okay, may add 1 T of Grand Marnier -- then it might make a good midnight omelet!

For a better looking dish, and another, fresher, 'layer' of orange flavor, after peeling the orange and before juicing it, might slice off one or two thin, large diameter rounds, peel them, and put them on top of the final omelet.

So far I notice that when the omelet is good and the sauce is good, the two are a bit too distinct and need to be better 'integrated'. So, maybe add some orange peel and orange juice to the eggs before whipping and cooking the eggs. Or, even consider using a second orange to have more to add to the eggs.

So far, I've included the butter with the juice during the reduction, but I'm not sure that boiling the butter helps its flavor. So, may try adding the butter after reducing the juice-sugar syrup and, then, just heat enough to melt the butter and get it combined.

So far when reducing the juice, etc., have been careful and not scorched the mixture. Still, some people might like a 'caramel orange butter' sauce or a 'butterscotch orange butter sauce'!

If made cups of this stuff, with extra sugar, then maybe could get children to like omelets!

Or, might add to, say, raspberries or pour over grapefruit or banana slices?

If made a large quantity and heated to the 'softball' stage or some such, might have an 'orange glaze' could pour over pound cake, sponge cake, or even a dense, soft chocolate cake.

I shouldn't have to do these experiments and, instead, there should be a good PDF file with a lot of BIG color pictures -- mostly of the WORK, not just 'beauty shots' at the Greenbriar, etc. -- and some YouTube video clips from a project sponsored by the Orange Group, the Sugar Council, the Butter Board, and the Egg Consortium!

paulraphael:

Thanks! Yup, might save the fresh orange for slices for the top! And did notice that one of the trials seemed to be like orange marmalade!

I haven't been getting white pith, but I have had trouble with the result being too sour and bitter.

Again, a bottled product from a commercial producer will no doubt do better on getting a better balanced flavor consistently than I can do one orange at at time, for breakfast, still sleepy!