Seville oranges

[trillium]

Just a friendly reminder that Seville or sour oranges are in season and are fantastic for making cocktails. Some favorites to make with thes are the Bronx, the Petite Zinc, Satan's whiskers, the Monkey Gland (perfect for the year of the monkey) and a Delilah made with sour orange juice instead of lemon, which we then call a Dolores. It's a great match with marcona almonds.

regards,

trillium

[slkinsey]

Monkey Gland (perfect for the year of the monkey)

Made with one ounce gin, an ounce orange juice, and a dash of both anise and grenadine, the Monkey Gland takes its name from the work of Russian doctor Serge Voronoff, director of experimental surgery at the Laboratory of Physiology of the Collége de France. Shaken with cracked ice and served up, the drink makes us think we feel better, even if we really don't.

When drinking this classic, however, we never discuss its namesake ... something about imagining poor monkeys forcibly donating their sex glands to humans pathetically hoping to prolong life turns us off all food and drink. That's even before we consider the tedious operation of grafting slices of the monkeys' testes to the inside of patients' scrotums. But the good doctor insisted his grafts did the trick: "Like my old rams, they become young in their gait, full of vitality and energy." A 65-year-old man even required a second graft after two years, having been "over-prodigal of the vital energy supplied by his first one."

Shudder... shudder...

[trillium]

I know. Nasty. But it's a nice drink with a rather unfortunate name. I make it with cheapie anise, Herbsaint as a matter of fact.

regards,

trillium

[beans]

I'll keep an eye out for them, but doubt I'll find any without an effort. (read: worth the effort) Hmmm. Marmalade fixins, too, right? Reminds me of when I bought ginger to infuse into my vodka. I ate the ginger in my dinner and drank the vodka....

I had a hard enough time finding kumquats, ususally found in most supermarkets in small quantities with high prices, during the holidays.

[cinnamonshops]

i've been making aviations with seville oranges too, as well as jack roses. very tasty! suppose one would probably need new names for those variations too though, eh?

i think i made my marmalade too sweet though, but i guess that's a topic for another area of egullet altogether! heh.

[trillium]

i've been making aviations with seville oranges too, as well as jack roses. very tasty! suppose one would probably need new names for those variations too though, eh?

i think i made my marmalade too sweet though, but i guess that's a topic for another area of egullet altogether! heh.

Yeah, come up with some other names, that's half the fun (the other half is how good sour oranges make cocktails taste).

For marmalade I've always used Delia's recipe, I figured her credentials were pretty impeccable for this sort of thing and the marmalade always has turned out great. I've made the darker she gives too.

regards,

trillium

[birder53]

Possible very dumb question - would you mix the juice of a sour orange with juice from myer lemons in a drink?

[cinnamonshops]

hey, that's the exact recipe i did use! and i may have even used slightly less sugar than called for. maybe i just don't know how sweet marmalade is supposed to taste. it makes my mouth feel funny. uh... but perhaps that's just me. it's still pretty great.

and to bring it back to cocktails, just so i don't feel like i'm being too off-topic, doesn't dale degroff (or is it someone else?) have a recipe for a "breakfast martini" that involves shaking a spoonful of marmalade with the liquor, and garnishing with a piece of toast?

-mk

[trillium]

Possible very dumb question - would you mix the juice of a sour orange with juice from myer lemons in a drink?

All the time! They're what I use when they're in season. I think the sweeter meyer lemon juice complements the sourer seville orange juice perfectly.

regards,

trillium

[trillium]

hey, that's the exact recipe i did use! and i may have even used slightly less sugar than called for. maybe i just don't know how sweet marmalade is supposed to taste. it makes my mouth feel funny. uh... but perhaps that's just me. it's still pretty great.

and to bring it back to cocktails, just so i don't feel like i'm being too off-topic, doesn't dale degroff (or is it someone else?) have a recipe for a "breakfast martini" that involves shaking a spoonful of marmalade with the liquor, and garnishing with a piece of toast?

-mk

I dunno if he came up with it, but the recipe is on his website. The thought of gin soaked toast...blech...that would put me off my breakfast.

regards,

trillium

[cinnamonshops]

I dunno if he came up with it, but the recipe is on his website. The thought of gin soaked toast...blech...that would put me off my breakfast.

i know, not something i'm really planning on trying, i just think it's a really funny idea.

[JAZ]

Possible very dumb question - would you mix the juice of a sour orange with juice from myer lemons in a drink?

All the time! They're what I use when they're in season. I think the sweeter meyer lemon juice complements the sourer seville orange juice perfectly.

regards,

trillium

How would you say the taste of the two compares? I can definitely smell and taste the tangerine in Meyer's lemons and I use them (alone or with orange juice) in many drink recipes that call for plain orange juice because I like my drinks on the tart side. Now I guess I'll have to find some Sevilles to do a comparison.

[trillium]

The juice of the Meyers are more delicate than the juice of the Seville oranges, but they don't taste or smell the same. I'd say the zest of either is equally stong. When I use both in a drink, I garnish with zest from just the Meyer or do two, one of Seville peel and one of Meyer. That way the lemon isn't overpowered by the orange. I like anything with citrus to be on the tart side too. The Seville oranges are very tart, I think that's why I like them so much. A Bronx made with Seville orange juice and a nice bittersweet vermouth is fantastic. A Bronx made with regular orange juice and plain old sweet vermouth doesn't do it for me.

regards,

trillium

[ludja]

A Bronx made with Seville orange juice and a nice bittersweet vermouth is fantastic. A Bronx made with regular orange juice and plain old sweet vermouth doesn't do it for me.

regards,

trillium

what vermouth would you use? Punt y Mes?

[trillium]

A Bronx made with Seville orange juice and a nice bittersweet vermouth is fantastic.  A Bronx made with regular orange juice and plain old sweet vermouth doesn't do it for me.

regards,

trillium

what vermouth would you use? Punt y Mes?

That's what I'm using right now. I used Carpano's Antica formula before, which I liked better, but I can't find it any more. I tried it with Vya but it wasn't bitter enough for my tastes.

regards,

trillium

[ludja]

A Bronx made with Seville orange juice and a nice bittersweet vermouth is fantastic.  A Bronx made with regular orange juice and plain old sweet vermouth doesn't do it for me.

regards,

trillium

what vermouth would you use? Punt y Mes?

That's what I'm using right now. I used Carpano's Antica formula before, which I liked better, but I can't find it any more. I tried it with Vya but it wasn't bitter enough for my tastes.

regards,

trillium

Thanks Trillium.

I haven't had Seville orange juice fresh (only in marmalade, which I love) so don't know if this is viable idea.

I thought it might be a good ingredient to make an interesting sangrita chaser for tequila.

The most common recipe I've heard of uses organge juice, tomato juice, lime and chile... Caroline mentioned an intriguing version pomegranate juice and ancho chile puree...

[JAZ]

I haven't had Seville orange juice fresh (only in marmalade, which I love) so don't know if this is viable idea.

I thought it might be a good ingredient to make an interesting sangrita chaser for tequila.

The most common recipe I've heard of uses organge juice, tomato juice, lime and chile... Caroline mentioned an intriguing version pomegranate juice and ancho chile puree...

It's funny, I was thinking a little of the juice might be a good addition to a Bloody Mary.

[beans]

and to bring it back to cocktails, just so i don't feel like i'm being too off-topic, doesn't dale degroff (or is it someone else?) have a recipe for a "breakfast martini" that involves shaking a spoonful of marmalade with the liquor, and garnishing with a piece of toast?

I've used other preserves to mix into a cocktail as well -- a hot pepper one and my homemade salmonberry jam, to be precise. (not mixed together )

Hold the toast -- it is only carbs!

[bostonapothecary]

sevilles are in season... i got a case a month ago and made quite alot of creole shrub from the peel... but i squandered the juice... i drank most of it myself nonalcoholically with demerara sugar...

and now i've been asked to present a cocktail for a large charity event... i was going to use the shrub i made in a drink... its delishous, intense, and the drink is fun... but i can't get over the juice... everybody has had cointreau or creole shrub but few had tasted the seville juice... i think i should scratch my idea and go for a drink to showcase the juice... (giving myself an excuse to get more peel)

do drinks calling for OJ actually call for seville OJ?

i was thinking of presenting the "bronx (zoo) cocktail"... but what is the earliest recipe... i see sweet vermouth only and then sweet and dry... maybe they added dry vermouth because they stopped using tart oranges...

i kinda wanted to make a saint james cocktail but i don't think i can find enough of the rum around here...

tart oranges are a wild concept amongst our domesticated landscape... they remind me of wild lands where you have to be on your toes... the zoo is where those exotic unrestrained oranges and our modern life would overlap... i need a drink to earn the respect of errant mauling tigers and to drink side by side with silver backs...

enough color to apease a tiger and enough booze to inebriate a babboon?

1.5 oz. gin (exotic high proof formula)

.75 oz. sweet vermouth (a style that isn't bland wine syrup)

.75 oz. tart seville orange juice

[DerekW]

sevilles are in season...i think i should...go for a drink to showcase the juice...

There were hardly any hereabouts: I've been mixing the juice and saving the peel for C. Baker's bitters.

i was thinking of presenting the "bronx (zoo) cocktail"... but what is the earliest recipe

The excellent Mr Wondrich's "Imbibe" gives an imprecise date somewhere around 1905-ish.

i see sweet vermouth only and then sweet and dry... maybe they added dry vermouth because they stopped using tart oranges...

Perhaps, or perhaps just part of the general 'drying trend'? I wasn't very satisfied with my 'sweet vermouth' results. Drier and sharper, with something herbal to tweak things would have worked better, I think. Ah, hindsight. A more 'in your face' Dry than the NP I had to hand, and little Chartreuse, perhaps.

Now I wish the oranges hadn't all disappeared

[Lisa Shock]

I have a question about the oranges themselves. I currently live in Phoenix, AZ, but I haven't lived here all of my life. There are 'decorative' orange trees all over town, and I have been told to avoid the fruit. I even recall seeing something on the tv news about some kids who tried to eat some and had to go to the hospital because the oranges burned their lips and throats.

Are these 'decorative' oranges Sevilles, or a similar type? How can I tell? If I process these into marmalade or use the skins to make liqueur, will they still be dangerous? I've been looking, but can't find a real guide to identification online.