Comments on: candied grapefruit peels

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:57:22 +0000

Try a vegetable peeler to get nice strips with NO pitch attached. Works great. I also dip the tips of some of my strips into melted chocolate to add some variety to the plate.

By: Lisa P.

Lisa P. — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:05:52 +0000

Janice (comment 118) has it right. I’ve made these with a recipe from a special holiday Martha Stewart magazine from a few years ago (not one of the regular monthly ones–it might be called Handmade or Holiday or something) and she has you do that, too. I tried to skip it this year, and it’s not going so well. I think you need the longer, multiple boils and scrapes before you put them in the sugar syrup and then sugar them. When I made them with that recipe, they were great, and even my non-grapefruit-loving husband liked them. Hope you try again!

By: janice

janice — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:22:46 +0000

the bitter is from the pith (and for grapefruit its REALLY bitter!) — you have to scrape the pith off before poaching in the sugar syrup. The easiest way to do this is take the peel off in large sections — ideally quarters, and boil those a couple of times. Then scrape off the pith (should be soft enough to do with a spoon), cut into slices and poach in syrup

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:12:50 +0000

Hey! I am huge fan, and I read constantly. I also am a line cook and pastry cook professionally. Recently I made pomello strawberry marmalade. I realized, like yourself, that since pomellos are much more bitter then oranges or lemons, I decided to take a few extra steps to help dilute it a little. Really all it took was a few more boiling sessions. I tend to bring lemons or oranges to a boil and drain at least 4 times, with the pomellos I ended up doing it 7 times. Also, the last two sessions I added a 1/4 cup of sugar to the water. As the water evaporated the rinds absorbed a little of that sugar. They remained bitter to say the least, but definitely palatable, and tasted delicious in the marmalade. Maybe try that? Everything is trial and error! I hope you can figure it out, I don’t have any grapefruits, but plenty of pommellos left over so maybe I will try and candy the peels and let you know how it goes!

By: dhughes609

dhughes609 — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:31:49 +0000

Every year I process 20 or so grapefruit when I can purchase them in the 20-25 cent a piece range. My goal is candied grapefruit rind and I don’t wasteg the fruit.. I want to share my improved technique that my NANA did every year when grapefruits were plentiful. Remove the zest before eating or cutting into the fruit. I use a PedEgg Proffesional Microplane (Callous Remover) and shave the rind and shine off the skin. Next I score the peel orbitally twice with a tupperware tool that is similar to crochet needle. I fletch the pieces of peel off with my fingers and am left with a pith covered grapefruit to use as I wish. Boil and rinse the peels a couple of times and then boil with sugar to a very thick consistency. Roll in sugar and let dry. When I was a kid, I never understood why other peoples candied grapefruit was so bitter. Nana’s rinds were hoarded.

By: J.Graf

J.Graf — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:38:19 +0000

Hey there! I see this has been answered a lot, but offering slightly different suggestion. The way I use it you may not be snacking on it due to its size but makes a nice topper for cupcakes or other deserts. I simply peel strips off the rind sometimes with a zester, cover the pieces in agave nectar and dehydrate. They are sweet and delicious! Hope this wasn’t beating a dead horse :}

By: Ed R.

Ed R. — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:45:50 +0000

My Cuban grandmother used to make candied grapefruit peel, except that she would not dry them out. She made a heavy syrup and stored them in the syrup in the refrigerator. They were absolutely delicious. I remember eating them as a child.

She would remove the outer colored part of the grapefruit peel, quarter them removing the juicy sections, and she would using only the white bitter pith. One thing I remember her saying is that you have to boil them until there is no bitterness left. She would soak the pith in the refrigerator for 24 hours, changing out the water every 6 hours or so to help remove the bitterness. The next day she would boil them, changing out the water several times. Her secret was that she tasted the water after every boiling cycle. If it was bitter she would change out the water and boil again. If the water is still bitter, your finished product will be bitter. It may take more than the four boiling cycles you are using. I think that you might want to try my grandmother’s technique and achieve better results with your end-product. Of course you don’t have to peel them like my grandmother did, you could just try using her boiling technique.

I hope you try it and post the results of that trial here. I look forward to hearing about it!

By: Zoe C.

Zoe C. — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:45:58 +0000

My mom candies the fruit of several citrus fruits, including bitter orange-which is rrrrrreally bitter!

Before she removes the peel, she actually grates the zest off (with the fine side of the grater) and then proceeds to the water baths. She does not remove the pith, and she uses a 1:1 ratio of sugar to fruit by weight, and keeps it at a medium boil until the syrup becomes quite thick. The peel is cooled in the syrup overnight, removed the next day and rolled in granulated sugar (after removing excess syrup). There is no bitterness at all.

By: chris c.

chris c. — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:26:10 +0000

I am with the others – you have to remove the pith as best you can. I candied whole grapefruit slices without a recipe or any experience because it sounded like fun and they came out… well they were good but I boiled them in sugar syrup for for about 4 hours total.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:22:06 +0000

I made candied grapefruit slices over the weekend. I didn’t blanch them at all, but just boiled them down for about an hour, hour and a half in half a cup of sugar and a cup and a half of water. Simmer simmer simmer. Then I set them on a rack for two hours, then tossed them in a bag of fine baker’s sugar. They were quite tasty! A bit bitter, and not something I’d want to eat a lot of.

So you know what I did?

Are you ready for this?

I chopped them up fine and simmered them (with some sugar) in cream, with the end of a vanilla bean that I had soaked in bourbon. I simmered this for about 30 minutes, strained out the grapefruit, and carefully whisked in a tempered egg yolk. Then I tossed the whole thing (strained out grapefruit included, minus the vanilla pod) into the blender and processed it until it was a soft frothy pink, but still with some candied grapefruit bits. I whisked in some whole milk and put it in the refrigerator. Tonight it goes in the ice cream maker.