Seville orange

Bigarade

What it is

The bitter orange reached Europe with Arab traders some four centuries before the sweet one, so for a long stretch the word orange meant this fruit and no other. Its blossom is distilled for neroli, named after Anne Marie de La Trémoille, princess of Nerola, who is said to have scented her gloves with it in the 1680s.

In the kitchen

The pectin sits in the peel, so for marmalade cook the whole fruit until soft first and shred afterwards — cutting raw peel costs you both juice and set. Reckon on roughly equal weights of fruit and sugar, and take it to 104 °C.

Goes with

Duck White sugar Cognac Vanilla Dark chocolate Cinnamon Star anise Butter

In season alongside

Bergamot Menton lemon Meyer lemon Grapefruit Kumquat Blood orange

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