Dried Tangerine Peel

If you look at the cross section of a citrus peel, you’ll see two layers. The thicker layer is the white, nubbly pith, which has membranous fibers that connect it to the fruit and is extremely bitter, even from the sweetest fruit. The other, thinner layer, is the brightly-colored zest, rich with the flavors of sunshine and blossoms, the concentrated essence of the fruit itself. This is what gets processed into Dried Tangerine Peel. With an essential oil content of about 1% by weight, this peel retains its piquant citrus smell and fresh taste.

The terms tangerine and orange are often used interchangeably. The small, slightly flattened citrus fruit is actually a cultivar of a mandarin, which are believed to have descended from wild oranges that grew in northeast India as long as 3,000 years ago. These early Mandarin oranges were carried by travelers to China, and from there eventually made their way into Europe, North Africa and Australia. In 1805, the first of these easy to peel oranges were introduced to England from China. Mandarins were imported from China into the Mediterranean region through the port of Tangiers, Morocco and were given the nickname "tangerine". By the 1820s, they even made their way to Australia, where they became an almost instant hit.

Tips From Our Kitchen

Use Dried Tangerine Peel in sweet and savory applications. Add to a stir-fry for a fragrant orange chicken. Mix with thyme and olive oil for a marinade for fish. It pairs wonderfully with rosemary so mix them into a spice blend and use on lamb chops, sautéed mushrooms, or as part of a vinaigrette for a tangerine and fennel salad. It’s a surprising twist in fresh salsa. Mix Dried Tangerine Peel with cake batter or sprinkle on muffin tops. Home brewers can add this to a batch when brewing IPAs or saisons, or get a fine-mesh infusion bag and use it to infuse gin or vodka.

When using Dehydrated Tangerine Peel, use 1/3 of the amount of fresh tangerine as called for. If it asks for 1 Tablespoon of fresh tangerine, use 1 teaspoon of dried peel.

To rehydrate, add three parts water to one part peel and let stand for 15 minutes; drain off excess liquid.

Our Tangerine Peel comes from trees cultivated in the US.

This product is certified kosher.

Hungry for more information?

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