Worst seasonal recipe: I nominate candied orange peel

[hedgehog]

I've seen about half a dozen articles all about preparing candied orange peel to give your friends and relatives. The only problem is, unless you buy organic oranges, the peel is treated with wax preservatives, dyes to get that nice uniform orange color and fungicides to keep the fruit from going moldy. Eat what's inside, but don't eat the orange peel, candied or not!

[LaydeeBug]

1. fruitcake. nt

[hedgehog]

2. I think fruit cake gets a bad rap because of all the manufactured versions out there.

I used to make fruit cake with good candied fruit and real butter, eggs and sugar that was to die for. The only problem is that my recipe made enough to feed a family of 60!

Now I make a special cake: I take an old fashioned pound cake recipe with 12 eggs and 1 or 2 pounds of butter, add hazelnuts and dried cherries and a 1/4 cup of Irish Mist. Then i pour most of the rest of the Irish Mist over the cake. Once it all soaks in, I make a heavy frosting with sugar, butter and remaining Irish Mist.

For some reason, everyone loves that fruit cake!

[Sequoia]

4. I'm coming to your house...put on the coffee!

Wow, 12 eggs and 2 pounds of butter. Ga, ga!!!

[surrealAmerican]

9. "good candied fruit"? I thought that was an oxymoron.

[hedgehog]

17. Candied fruit can be

Heaven



or Hell



I mean, green pineapple? and what the heck is citron, anyways?

It's probably full of corn syrup!

I have switched to using dried fruit for candied fruit in cake recipes.

[surrealAmerican]

18. Dried fruit is pretty wonderful stuff.

The candied stuff tastes like sugared plastic.

[edhopper]

3. Turnip

my wife loves it. Go figure.

[Connonym]

5. yum! turnips are great

I like candied orange peel AND (good) fruitcake also. I guess I'm weird that way.

[kentauros]

6. I always buy organic oranges and grapefruits when I make candied

strips. They always turn out great, though it is a lot of work :D

[hedgehog]

7. Candied orange peel is probabaly delicious, but I have yet to see

a published recipe that warns people not to use typical supermarket oranges!

[kentauros]

11. Because the food industry tells people their food is safe

so recipes aren't going to assume anything less, either. At one time, that was certainly the case. But I bet if you look around online, you will find recipes that urge people to only use organic and local at that :)

[TheCentepedeShoes]

8. Can't stand fruit cake

Tastes awful plus Mommie Dearest made me make one once
Don't know why and if I ask she will deny it happened
After getting all those sticky candied fruit things on my hands (her method) I thought about Lady {the play you are not supposed to name}

[surrealAmerican]

10. Eggnog.

The stuff repels me.

[Xipe Totec]

13. Try Rompope Santa Clara

you will never look at eggnog the same way again

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/recipes/puebla/kg1206.html

[Xipe Totec]

12. This is the citrus you should candy:

It is called Budahs's hand and it is one of the most fragrant citrus I know.



A lemon that's all rind?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.sanfranciscofoodie.com/scraps/buddhasHand.htm&usg=__oTCis4RaZgmugge9MaCupZuJcxY=&h=341&w=454&sz=132&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=wNc8S-vvlrWAxM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhand%2Bof%2Bbudah%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:en%26sa%3DN

[kentauros]

15. Well, if I can find it, it might be worth an experiment

:)

The candying part does rely on the rind being in place, as that lends some "bite" to the final product, if you're going to eat it as a candy. If you're using it for garnish, then use only the zest portion.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. You can use the orange peel to make a fruitcake like this:

This fruitcake was made in 1911.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/style/35659169.html?elr=KArksUUUU

[buzzycrumbhunger]

16. My gran's mince pie is THE ultimate

No, not one of those over-spiced apple concoctions--the woman always made a REAL mince pie. . . with organ meat. Jeez, the Scots really take thrift to the extreme. (I'd use the "barf" emoticon, but it disgusts me almost as much as the pie.)

[IDemo]

19. Is it too late to nominate the green bean + cat vomit casserole?

[SeattleGirl]

20. Orange peel? Yuck.

There are only a few good uses for orange peel:

To protect the orange until eaten.

To use as a garnish.

For orange zest.