July 18, 2025 • 35 mins
This fragrant flavoring is what's left over when you steam distill neroli oil out of bitter orange blossoms – and it’s anything but an afterthought. Anney and Lauren dip into the science and history of orange blossom water.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm any Rey and I'm Lauren vocal Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about orange blossom water.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, and what a tangled wave webb it weaves.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh my goodness, I have never been so mad at
an outline that I am simultaneously so delighted by.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yes. Yeah, well with that teaser. Is there any particular
reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Bloord, You know there there was, but it could have
been anything at this juncture. I think maybe like we
had mentioned it in passing in something else, or maybe
it was just on my list for a long time,
because when we did rose Water, I was like, oh yeah,
and add that one to the list. At any rate,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Here, we are here, we are for past episodes that
might be relevant. You can see our orange episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And Sweet Oranges.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We've got a couple other orange and citrus episodes in
their shirt.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes, also rose Water.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Right, also Orgatt Pando Mortos, our New Orleans cocktail culture
episode regarding specifically the Ramos Gin Fizz. There's a bunch
of others, like Turkish Delight, maybe Pavlova I can't remember
(01:40):
all of the things that this one touches on, and
as we frequently say, we have no idea what we've
done in the past or possibly what we're doing right now.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
That's just how we roll.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Vaguely related. You can bop over to Stuff to Blow
Your Mind the podcast for our guest episode with Joe
covering Ambergris for another interesting food flavoring.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Indeed, uh huh uh.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Currasow is vaguely related due to the type of orange
that we're going to be talking about. That that's why,
that's why it was specifically on my mind because we
just talked about carosow.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Here we are, there, we go, Okay, we've got to
the bottom of that mystery. Well, speaking of Still to
Blow your Mind, we were fortunate enough to get to
guests on that show. Depending on when you listen to this,
it's coming out next week or maybe it's already out.
But it's about interesting things that can happen to food
(02:47):
when they're stored in containers, and it is very interesting.
As boring as that might sound.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, yes, we talk about lasagna batteries and how many
of them it would take to power a significant amount
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So yes, and if you have the answer to that,
we actually didn't arrive at that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. How many Lasagnas would it
take to power in nation through their electrical capacity?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You'll have to see any episode for more on. We're
just gonna leave it in mystery, but we won't leave
you in mystery about this, right, Yes, as much as
we can. Yeah, that's to our best capacity exactly, which
brings us to our question. Orange blossom water.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Orange blossom water is a type of liquid flavoring and
or scent that's made by processing the flowers of bitter oranges. Basically,
you steam to still out like the fun flavorful oil,
and then separate the oils from the water that you've added.
The remaining water is still chock full of lovely things.
It smells sweet and tastes bitter, with citrusy, green, fruity,
(04:12):
and kind of powdery floral flavors. It's clear to very
pale gold and color, and is used mostly in sweet
dishes and drinks like pastries and sweetbreads and cakes, or
to make dowsing syrups for things like bucklava, or in
creamy puddings and frozen desserts or in citrusy cocktails, but
(04:33):
it can compliment savory dishes too. I think that in
cuisines that favor vanilla, it is so orange blossom water
that is so old fashioned that it's new again. But
there are a lot of cuisines that it never left,
where it inspires a lot of fondness and nostalgia. It's
(04:55):
like it's like putting your face in a citrus tree
in full bloom, just like heady and warm and enveloping
and a little bit invigorating. It's like a It's like
the feeling that you get when you realize you have
a crush on someone.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah. It's a really bright, happy and in some cases overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah yeah, leaves you a little bit breathless. So these
specific orange blossoms in question are those of the Seville
orange or the bitter orange or sour orange, botanical name
Citrus oorentium. The fruit itself is too bitter and sour
to eat out of hand, just like a real punch
(05:42):
in the face, but the juice and the peel can
be used in sweet and savory dishes and drinks. They're
the signature citrus for English style marmalade. The blossoms, which
bloom in clusters of small, white, fragrant flowers, have some
of those same bitter and citrusy flavors along with right,
like a little bit of green and this sort of
fruity grapey twinge, some real pretty florals, and then that
(06:06):
signature sweet scent. And by the way, if you never
have put your face near living citrus blossoms, I cannot
recommend it enough. It is so nice noted. Yeah, yeah,
come over, I've got a lime tree for orange blossom water.
The flowers are usually picked by hand in the hours
(06:26):
immediately following sunrise, before the heat of the day has
the chance to like dry the flowers out, and then
they are processed asap, just right away if you can.
The petals of orange blossoms contain a number of volatile
essential oils that is naturally occurring plant based, smelly oily stuff.
(06:49):
The oil that you get from bitter orange blossoms is
called neuroli. It's relatively expensive because it takes like a
lot of flowers to get a little oil, though the
resulting oil is pretty strong and is used mostly in
perfumery and other cosmetics. You might have heard of neurally oil.
But to get neurally oil out of orange blossoms, especially
on a commercial scale, you gotta distill them out. So, Okay,
(07:13):
everything has a boiling point, right, a point at which
whatever liquid stuff will vaporize, and that boiling point differs
slightly for pretty much everything. And you can use this
science fact to separate out all kinds of interesting things
from their original homes just by boiling them in water.
(07:35):
So you can get the ethanol out of a grain
and fruit mash and concentrate it into liquor, or you
can get the flavors out of juniper and citrus, peel
and annis, etc. Out of all of those botanicals in
order to flavor gin. Distillation is heating stuff in or
with water to the boiling point of whatever you're interested in,
(07:56):
and then collecting the vapors and cooling them back into
a liquid. When you do this with orange blossoms, you
get a mixture of water and neuroli. Because oils and
waters don't like each other very much, the oils will
separate out and can be pretty easily filtered or redistilled,
leaving you with a colorless water that still contains an
impressively strong punch of orange blossominess. If the product has
(08:20):
a golden tint to it, it's not because the color
came through in the distillation. It's because it's been exposed
to sunlight at some point. The color comes from chemical
reactions among the compounds in the blossom water. If you
happen to have access to bitter orange trees, you can
(08:41):
make this at home. Check the internet for recipes. You
can try other types of citrus flowers, obviously they won't
have exactly the same flavors. You can also find orange
blossom water for sale and markets, especially ones with like
a good Middle Eastern import section, or sometimes alongside cocktail
flavorings or coffee flavorings, or maybe in the bake section.
(09:02):
And yeah, it plays really well with like warm and
or bitter flavors, things like chocolate, nuts, especially almonds, warm spices.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You can also use it.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
To play off of like fruity or fresh flavors, like
in dressings for fruit salads or vegetable salads. It's lovely
and cold drinks like lemonade or fruity punches, or just
sparkling or still water. It's also nice in hot drinks
like tea or coffee. Or even just hot water. It
can also help cut or like add complexity to rich
(09:35):
flavors like it goes well with the sweetened cheese pastries,
or like a cheesecake or a rice pudding, or even
in savory dishes like meat pies. A lot of Middle
Eastern desserts call for couture. I think I'm not rolling
my r NF, but I think I've got that nearly correct.
It's a flavored syrup made with sugar, water, lemon juice,
(09:57):
and a touch of orange blossom.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And or rose.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It can be used as an ingredient in stuff or
as a drizzle, dip or soak. And like rose water,
I will say that if you're using if you're going
to try using orange blossom water for the first time
at home, start with less than maybe you think that
you're gonna need like a quarter teaspoon, just a couple
of drops. It can be real potent, especially if you're
(10:22):
not used to it. And the line between like ooh
that's fun and like oh, that's soap is just easy
to trip over. The orange blossom water is a bit
more gentle and less grandma than rose water. And side note,
there has to be some like classic perfume that makes
(10:46):
Americans connect rose to Grandma's. Or maybe it's that rose
was phased out of American cooking but not out of
American cosmetics, so things like lipstick and face powder were
still scented with it through certainly the middle of the
nineteen hundreds. I'll have to look into it when I
get a chance, or y'all write in if you know
more about perfumery than I do.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes, please, Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Orange blossom water is also used in cosmetics and in
folk and or traditional medicines, and I understand that in
Morocco it's a symbol of hospitality. You might like sprinkle
it on a guest's hands when you're welcoming them into
your home, or as part of religious ceremonies or stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yes, and as always, listeners, please write in about that
as well. Well. What about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It has been said to have various medicinal properties for
a really long time. Generally you're not you're not usually
consuming enough of it for it to make much of
a nutritive difference. But yeah, like I said, it's been
in traditional medicines for a very long time, and various
(11:57):
it and its components are being instigated for different potentially
cool properties. But yeah, saber motto, saber motto. Indeed, Well,
we have a couple numbers for you, just a couple.
Uh So, I couldn't track down like industrial numbers about
how much of this stuff is produced, but I will
(12:19):
say that some thousand pounds of flowers go into making
just one pound of neuuri oil. How much orange blossom
water that creates, I don't know. I couldn't find that out.
There are a few orange blossom, like bitter orange blossom
festivals around the world in places where they have been
(12:41):
traditionally grown. One of them in Marrakesh in Morocco every
spring is called the Zaia Festival. Oh, I didn't look
it up, and I'm having regrets, but we're just going
to keep on going right now. That was in its
thirteenth year in twenty twenty five, and it's based on
like home distillation traditions and springtime celebrations and went public
(13:06):
thirteen years ago to encourage I mean, you know, commerce
and education, as most festivals do. I read that the
organizing association is applying to get the area's orange blossom
traditions recognized by UNESCO.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So that's pretty cool. That is cool. Another thing you
listeners will have to write in about if you have
attended or no more.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Oh yeah, yeah right, and I read about similar things
in Crete and in Italy, so write let us know.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
But now we must peel open a bit of a
difficult history.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, yep, uh yeah, we're going to do that, but
first we are going to take a quick break for
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. So oranges a whole
different episode, one that we've already done but could probably
revisit with specific varieties.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah. Yeah, the various bitter orange varieties are super interesting,
and various sweet varieties are super interesting. They're all pretty cool, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
And have many applications throughout history doing this one.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And sometimes people just don't specify whether they were talking
about sweet versus bitter oranges in the historical literature, which
is really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It is fun and gave me a great headache and
a deletion a lot of stuff. I'd already put it
in the outline, but we'll talk about that a little
bit more later. Seville oranges the orange often in question
when it comes to the early history of orange blossom
water likely originated in Asia through trade routes. They traveled
(14:59):
to the Middle East and North Africa, and then up
to Europe in the eighth or ninth century CE, perhaps
through invaders from North Africa. Sweet oranges arrived in Europe
through a similar path, but much later centuries later. Yeah.
These types of distilled waters have a long history of
use in the Middle East as an aroma or as
(15:21):
a flavoring for desserts beverages, these types being obviously orange
blossomed water distillation has been around for thousands of years,
but Arab scholars were some of the first to refine
the method. Around the eighth century CE, the techniques made
their way to Europe, where over the centuries they were
refined even further.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yep and distilled waters might have originated as like a
byproduct of the concentrated oils that people were after, but
they pretty quickly became embedded in the cultures of the
peoples who produced them as valuable unto themselves.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
The cultivation of bitter oranges in Europe particularly took off
in the Mediterranean. People in Sicily were growing bitter oranges
by the eleventh century or earlier, and they were using
orange blossom water as early as the fourteenth century.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Arabs brought better oranges to southern Spain and were cultivating
them there around the same time, like the eleventh century
or so, and specifically around the city of Seville, where
the trees lined the streets. To this day, the oranges
became associated with the city and the wider province, to
the point that they eventually took on the name Saville oranges.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
In the early days in Europe, orange blossom water was
primarily used for things like perfumes or prescribed Medicinally. It
was used culinarily, but less so. Orange blossom water was
less available and more expensive to produce than rose water
at the time, so Europeans typically used rose water over
orange blossom water when cooking.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And this kind of just makes sense, like you could
grow roses more successfully in a lot more places then
you can grow orange trees. Though in several places like
Crete and Marrakesh, orange blossom water distillation became a practice
handed down specifically from mother to daughter.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
When the Spanish, Italians, and Portuguese started colonizing parts of
the Americas in the fourteen hundreds fifteen hundreds, they brought
bitter oranges with them. They planted them where they thought
they would grow, and they particularly took off in Florida
after the Spanish planted them there in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, Spanish colonization of Mexico is how orange blossomed water
eventually wound up in Pentamorphos.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
People in France were growing Seville oranges by the sixteenth century,
specifically to produce orange flower water or use as a
fragrance and flavoring agent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
They were mostly, perhaps entirely grown in the south and
made it over into the Ligurian area of Italy like
the coastal northwest around the same time, and those old
orange blossom products that the Neurolean the flower water became
like a major part of the economy there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yes, and a century later this ingredient was more widespread
across Europe's culinary landscapes, so people were really accepting this
orange blossom water. The orange trees, though, didn't grow well
during European winters, so growers built greenhouses specifically for citrus
(18:29):
during the Renaissance period. This also allowed for cultivating of
the oranges further north. We've talked about this in past
citrus episodes.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah. So. By the
sixteen hundreds, orange flower water was a very posh flavoring
around Europe, partially because it was so expensive, so like
feasts might have featured a dessert course accompanied by a
small fountain of orange flower water, not even for consuming,
(18:57):
just like for the scent. It remained a popular ingredient
in cosmetics and fragrances too, based on these perceived health properties,
and sometimes because it was considered say it with me and.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's been so long. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Using it in drinks and both sweet and savory dishes
was something of a status symbol in England and France
around the seventeen hundreds. I read in a couple of
places that France's madelines that like small scallop shaped cake
herb scallop shell shaped cake, that they originally were flavored
with orange flower water, though I don't think that came
(19:39):
up at our Madeline episode reading, because we didn't mention it.
In that episode. We mentioned citrus zest, but not orange
flower water. Supposedly, Marie Antoinette was a fan of orange
blossom water baths. By the early eighteen hundreds, it was
becoming slightly less expensive, especially diluted versions partially, you know,
(20:01):
thanks to the crimes against humanity that had been committed
by Europeans and the Caribbean, you know, all the genocide
and enslavement really opened up production in trade. Sorry, I'm
really mad about like a lot of stuff right now,
and it's leaking through via harsh but accurate language. Anyway,
Chefs in England and France and Italy and beyond used
(20:22):
orange flower water for event menus around that time. It
would go into things like lamb and poultry dishes, dressings
for savory salads and fruit salads, all kinds of desserts,
from cookies to custards, to jellies, to ices and ice creams.
It was often paired with almonds, and it was added
to or jotte, which is a sweetened almond syrup which
(20:43):
was used to make chilled drinks or to mulled wine.
It also wound up as an ingredient in Spain's version
of the Kingcake. And general note about all of this, like,
remember that vanilla was extremely expensive and only existed in
small quantities until like the middle to late eighteen hundreds,
(21:05):
you know, because it's the seed pod of a tropical
orchid that only opens for potential pollination one single morning
of its life, not making it easy on anybody. So
like until this enslaved twelve year old figured out how
to hand pollinate orchids, the vanilla orchids, vanilla was pricey,
so up through then things like rosewater and orange blossom
(21:26):
water were the go to flavorings for sweets that certainly
Americans would modernly use vanilla. And I know not everyone
as excited about vanilla as we are, but by the
late eighteen hundreds at least orange blossom water was being
used in like posh cocktail cities like New Orleans as
(21:48):
an ingredient in things like the Ramus Gin Fizz, which
is this gin cocktail with lemon and lime juice, little
orange blossom water, heavy cream, sugar, and an egg white,
shaken and bad and shaken until it is extremely frothy.
It is rumored to have been invented in the eighteen eighties.
So also, Queen Margarita, whom Margherita Pizza is supposedly named for,
(22:12):
was a fan of both dorolei and orange flower water,
and apparently her pastry chefs made this dish of lady
fingers with orange blossom water that they called the Queen's biscuits.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
The Queen's biscuit. Okay, all right, Well, now we're entering
into our promised a stage of confusion around sweet and
bitter oranges. But I think we've got it. I think so,
I think so. An American botanist by the name of
(22:46):
William Bartum wrote that oranges were flourishing in some parts
of Florida in seventeen seventy four, and he went out
of his way to mention how fragrant they smelled. By
the eighteen hundreds, oranges were growing in Georgia and South Carolina,
but an eighteen thirty five freeze and then another one
that came a few decades later pretty much killed them
off in those two states.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah and yeah, there's a lot of historical confusion about
sweet versus bitter oranges, and like when and where they
appeared in the Americas and how wide spreadly. I think
that most of the oranges in Florida up to the
eighteen sixties were bitter ones. But when the orange boom
(23:29):
took off there starting in the eighteen seventies, it.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Was because of the.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
New success success period of sweet oranges, which however, were
usually grafted grown by grafting the branches of sweet oranges
onto bitter orange rootstocks.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yep, so there we are here. Here's some of my
remaining notes from my Florida section history. In nineteen oh nine,
the sweet orange flower bossom was chosen as Florida's staked flower,
(24:12):
and then sometime between nineteen forty nine to nineteen fifty,
a man named Harry Yeasel began manufacturing and selling orange
blossom perfume out of Florida, presumably sweet orange. This is
fascinating to me because I found all these almost like
legends about him, and I tried to get to the
(24:34):
bottom of it, and I was like, I can't get
any proof, but you can find existence of his products.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, like you can buy it on the eBay. Yes, so,
But there were all these like that was the scent
they used to it was some college bowl.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
They perfumed it with his perfume. But I couldn't get
I couldn't find any evidence of it than people just
repeating it like it was a myth. They turned yes
story at night. So again, listeners, if you know any
more about this, I would love to know. I really
tried to get to the bottom of that. H but
(25:19):
moving on into more recent years, orange flower water has
become more widely available around the globe and a lot
more people use it than before. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, and some people really are coming back into it.
I think, however, kill joy corner, as this is a
natural product. Climate change is worrisome. Over the past few years,
farms in places like Morocco have seen droughts that affected crops.
On this one particular five hours I was reading about
flower production was down like twenty five percent. Though they
(25:53):
did find that the smaller, drier flowers were richer than
usual in oil production kind of broke even on oil production,
but also the balance of you know, volatile compounds and
the oils was different, so it's smelled different than it
usually does. So yeah, it's just it's making people shift
and work on the fly, which is a pain. And
(26:17):
you know, farming is already a very difficult thing to do,
and so yeah, climate change is not helping.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No, no, And so much of this takes so much planning. Anyway,
if you lose like a whole crop or something, that's devastating.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, luckily, I mean, citrus trees are evergreen for the
most part. Bitter oranges are evergreen. And so depending on
how you treat the trees, you can get a pretty
prolonged season for blossoms. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, well on that, I think that's what we have
to say about orange blossom water for now.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah. Yeah, we certainly didn't do pages of research about
neuroli oil.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
There was no deep confusion about the crusades. Surely not.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, but we would love to hear from y'all if
you have a family recipe or a cocktail that you make,
or a memory, we would love to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yes we would, But that is what we have to
say for now.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors. And we're back, Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you, and.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
We're back with listen. Yeah sunny day. Yes. Oh so
today we have two let me double check two letters
about Tarragon. Oh yay. Love when we can get a
(28:24):
theme going. But email is about whatever we like. Oh yeah,
all right, So Colleen wrote, loved the episode on Tarragon.
I learned a lot, especially the differences between them. Thank you.
I know. Now I have French tarragon. It doesn't flower
much and has an annis taste. It is very tough
(28:45):
here in eastern Ontario, surviving in a pot on the
porch where it gets below negative twenty five degrees celsius
by accident at first, but has done it several years
in a row. I actually don't like it that much,
except with chicken. It doesn't taste like licorice, and is
(29:05):
very nice if you add it when you're frying up
some chicken or in a pot pie. Heard you like
pet pictures. Ruric and Petie are brothers from other mothers.
Thanks for the pot. It lulls me to sleep as
I relax and learn. I listen the next day if
I missed too much or had to stop because I
got too hungry. Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yes, yes, And included our pictures of the of the
surprisingly hardy French tarragon plant. Yes, and the kidders who
are cuddled up next to each other. There is a
ginger one, a ginger tabby, and a tabby tabby, a
brown tabby, and they are their little faces are like
(29:49):
making a little heart shape.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
The way that they're pressed up next to each other.
It's adorable. It's really cute. It's adorable. I'm a little
jealous that your cats actually like each other. Orkapedies seem
to be, at least in this picture they are getting along.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, yes, I feel like you don't put your face
on someone when you sleep if you dislike them.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean, it's true unless you are really you like
to play with fire otherwise yeah yeah, yeah, so you
can let us know calling you if that's the case. Yes,
But always appreciated pet photos. And I'm glad you learned
about tear ground that I actually learned a lot from
(30:35):
that one too. Yeah yeah, I had no idea about
the varieties.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah yeah, yeah, no. Putting some in some like pan
fried chicken sounds amazing. I've never made a pot pie.
And now I'm like, like, Lauren, what are you doing
with your life?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You need to fix this immediately apparently.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, Bart wrote It's been a while since I've written
in but when I saw you were doing an episode
on Tarragon, I literally squeeed a little, and once you
asked for recipes, I just had to write. I love
cooking with what I jokingly referred to as opinionated ingredients,
and tarragon definitely falls into that category, especially fresh tarragon.
(31:21):
I adore the stuff, but sadly it's a real rarity here.
One of our supermarkets gets a few bags of fresh
tarragon in a few times a year. I check for
it in the shelf each and every week, and when
I see it, yoink. My general rule for fresh teragon
is that if it has tomato in it, it will
work with fresh teragon. So while my pack lasts all
substitute it in for basil, time sage or rosemary in
(31:44):
anything I'm cooking with tomatoes, and so far, at least
it's always worked out great. I also make sure to
intentionally cook a few dishes that simply depend on fresh
tarragon to work, my absolute favorites being very much related.
One tarragon mashed potatoes finely chop about tablespoon of the
fresh leaves per adult portion and mix them in at
(32:04):
the very end just before serving. And two tearragon potato
salad needs nothing more than cold potatoes, mashed mayo taste,
fresh tarragon to taste, and a few grinds of black pepper.
In terms of dried tarragon, again, if it has tomatoes
in it, you can't go wrong, but it works especially
well in two dishes I cook very regularly. First, my
(32:26):
quick and easy tarragon chicken mayo for two and that
includes four teaspoons of mayo, two teaspoons of white wine vinegar,
a quarter teaspoon of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of
dried tarragon, and one hundred grams of finely diced cooked chicken,
all mixed into a paste and then spread on some
bread for an amazing lunch in minutes. And second, tomato
(32:47):
and tarragon green beans also works great with fresh This
one takes a little bit more describing, but is still
shockingly simple, so okay for two servings. Start with a
little olive and vegetable oil in the bottom of a
pan and soften a medium sized red onion for about
five minutes. Then add two cloves of minced garlic for
another couple minutes or so. Add two hundred grams of topped,
(33:07):
tailed and haved fine green beans or very thinly sliced
stringless French beans or runner beans. Splash water, two dice tomatoes,
the riper the better, cover and simmer until the tomatoes
go to mush and the beans are tender. Uncover and
turn up the heat for a few minutes.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
At the end.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
If there's too much liquid left for your liking, then
season with ground black pepper, tarragon, and optionally some parsley
and or chives. Then serve. I find with all the
umami from the tomato, no salt is needed, and I'm
under doctor's orders to cut that right now, but feel
free to add a little if desired. Before I started
to eat more healthily, I also loved adding a little
(33:45):
dried tarragon and garlic powder to my corn flour when
frying chicken breasts. But, like I say, I have to
be healthy these days, so I haven't done that in
some time.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Well I'm sorry to say. That sounds delicious. That delicious, Yeah,
but these other recipes do too.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Oh yeah yeah, and like maybe yeah, I'm like, maybe
I haven't been using tarragon correctly, like because I feel
like I didn't know about the tomato pairing particularly.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, I've recently. I don't know how, it's probably the
algorithm knows me. But I recently ran into you should
be using arragon and tomato as a pairing. So we'll
have to look into that.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'll have to see see what's available
at my grocery store. You know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I also love your description of Terragon as an opinionated
which I think is accurate.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh yeah, oh yeah no, And I also love opinionated ingredients.
I'm like, no, that's where the flavor is. That's I
want more of that, please, thank you?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah no, all of this sounds lovely us and thank
you so much for taking the time to send the
to us. Thanks to both of these listeners for writing
in uh huh. If you would like to write to us,
you can our email us hello at saborpod dot com.
We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Save is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts to
my heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
(35:36):
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm any Rey and I'm Lauren vocal Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about orange blossom water.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, and what a tangled wave webb it weaves.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh my goodness, I have never been so mad at
an outline that I am simultaneously so delighted by.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yes. Yeah, well with that teaser. Is there any particular
reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Bloord, You know there there was, but it could have
been anything at this juncture. I think maybe like we
had mentioned it in passing in something else, or maybe
it was just on my list for a long time,
because when we did rose Water, I was like, oh yeah,
and add that one to the list. At any rate,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Here, we are here, we are for past episodes that
might be relevant. You can see our orange episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And Sweet Oranges.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We've got a couple other orange and citrus episodes in
their shirt.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes, also rose Water.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Right, also Orgatt Pando Mortos, our New Orleans cocktail culture
episode regarding specifically the Ramos Gin Fizz. There's a bunch
of others, like Turkish Delight, maybe Pavlova I can't remember
(01:40):
all of the things that this one touches on, and
as we frequently say, we have no idea what we've
done in the past or possibly what we're doing right now.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
That's just how we roll.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Vaguely related. You can bop over to Stuff to Blow
Your Mind the podcast for our guest episode with Joe
covering Ambergris for another interesting food flavoring.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Indeed, uh huh uh.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Currasow is vaguely related due to the type of orange
that we're going to be talking about. That that's why,
that's why it was specifically on my mind because we
just talked about carosow.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Here we are, there, we go, Okay, we've got to
the bottom of that mystery. Well, speaking of Still to
Blow your Mind, we were fortunate enough to get to
guests on that show. Depending on when you listen to this,
it's coming out next week or maybe it's already out.
But it's about interesting things that can happen to food
(02:47):
when they're stored in containers, and it is very interesting.
As boring as that might sound.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, yes, we talk about lasagna batteries and how many
of them it would take to power a significant amount
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So yes, and if you have the answer to that,
we actually didn't arrive at that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. How many Lasagnas would it
take to power in nation through their electrical capacity?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You'll have to see any episode for more on. We're
just gonna leave it in mystery, but we won't leave
you in mystery about this, right, Yes, as much as
we can. Yeah, that's to our best capacity exactly, which
brings us to our question. Orange blossom water.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Orange blossom water is a type of liquid flavoring and
or scent that's made by processing the flowers of bitter oranges. Basically,
you steam to still out like the fun flavorful oil,
and then separate the oils from the water that you've added.
The remaining water is still chock full of lovely things.
It smells sweet and tastes bitter, with citrusy, green, fruity,
(04:12):
and kind of powdery floral flavors. It's clear to very
pale gold and color, and is used mostly in sweet
dishes and drinks like pastries and sweetbreads and cakes, or
to make dowsing syrups for things like bucklava, or in
creamy puddings and frozen desserts or in citrusy cocktails, but
(04:33):
it can compliment savory dishes too. I think that in
cuisines that favor vanilla, it is so orange blossom water
that is so old fashioned that it's new again. But
there are a lot of cuisines that it never left,
where it inspires a lot of fondness and nostalgia. It's
(04:55):
like it's like putting your face in a citrus tree
in full bloom, just like heady and warm and enveloping
and a little bit invigorating. It's like a It's like
the feeling that you get when you realize you have
a crush on someone.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah. It's a really bright, happy and in some cases overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah yeah, leaves you a little bit breathless. So these
specific orange blossoms in question are those of the Seville
orange or the bitter orange or sour orange, botanical name
Citrus oorentium. The fruit itself is too bitter and sour
to eat out of hand, just like a real punch
(05:42):
in the face, but the juice and the peel can
be used in sweet and savory dishes and drinks. They're
the signature citrus for English style marmalade. The blossoms, which
bloom in clusters of small, white, fragrant flowers, have some
of those same bitter and citrusy flavors along with right,
like a little bit of green and this sort of
fruity grapey twinge, some real pretty florals, and then that
(06:06):
signature sweet scent. And by the way, if you never
have put your face near living citrus blossoms, I cannot
recommend it enough. It is so nice noted. Yeah, yeah,
come over, I've got a lime tree for orange blossom water.
The flowers are usually picked by hand in the hours
(06:26):
immediately following sunrise, before the heat of the day has
the chance to like dry the flowers out, and then
they are processed asap, just right away if you can.
The petals of orange blossoms contain a number of volatile
essential oils that is naturally occurring plant based, smelly oily stuff.
(06:49):
The oil that you get from bitter orange blossoms is
called neuroli. It's relatively expensive because it takes like a
lot of flowers to get a little oil, though the
resulting oil is pretty strong and is used mostly in
perfumery and other cosmetics. You might have heard of neurally oil.
But to get neurally oil out of orange blossoms, especially
on a commercial scale, you gotta distill them out. So, Okay,
(07:13):
everything has a boiling point, right, a point at which
whatever liquid stuff will vaporize, and that boiling point differs
slightly for pretty much everything. And you can use this
science fact to separate out all kinds of interesting things
from their original homes just by boiling them in water.
(07:35):
So you can get the ethanol out of a grain
and fruit mash and concentrate it into liquor, or you
can get the flavors out of juniper and citrus, peel
and annis, etc. Out of all of those botanicals in
order to flavor gin. Distillation is heating stuff in or
with water to the boiling point of whatever you're interested in,
(07:56):
and then collecting the vapors and cooling them back into
a liquid. When you do this with orange blossoms, you
get a mixture of water and neuroli. Because oils and
waters don't like each other very much, the oils will
separate out and can be pretty easily filtered or redistilled,
leaving you with a colorless water that still contains an
impressively strong punch of orange blossominess. If the product has
(08:20):
a golden tint to it, it's not because the color
came through in the distillation. It's because it's been exposed
to sunlight at some point. The color comes from chemical
reactions among the compounds in the blossom water. If you
happen to have access to bitter orange trees, you can
(08:41):
make this at home. Check the internet for recipes. You
can try other types of citrus flowers, obviously they won't
have exactly the same flavors. You can also find orange
blossom water for sale and markets, especially ones with like
a good Middle Eastern import section, or sometimes alongside cocktail
flavorings or coffee flavorings, or maybe in the bake section.
(09:02):
And yeah, it plays really well with like warm and
or bitter flavors, things like chocolate, nuts, especially almonds, warm spices.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You can also use it.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
To play off of like fruity or fresh flavors, like
in dressings for fruit salads or vegetable salads. It's lovely
and cold drinks like lemonade or fruity punches, or just
sparkling or still water. It's also nice in hot drinks
like tea or coffee. Or even just hot water. It
can also help cut or like add complexity to rich
(09:35):
flavors like it goes well with the sweetened cheese pastries,
or like a cheesecake or a rice pudding, or even
in savory dishes like meat pies. A lot of Middle
Eastern desserts call for couture. I think I'm not rolling
my r NF, but I think I've got that nearly correct.
It's a flavored syrup made with sugar, water, lemon juice,
(09:57):
and a touch of orange blossom.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And or rose.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It can be used as an ingredient in stuff or
as a drizzle, dip or soak. And like rose water,
I will say that if you're using if you're going
to try using orange blossom water for the first time
at home, start with less than maybe you think that
you're gonna need like a quarter teaspoon, just a couple
of drops. It can be real potent, especially if you're
(10:22):
not used to it. And the line between like ooh
that's fun and like oh, that's soap is just easy
to trip over. The orange blossom water is a bit
more gentle and less grandma than rose water. And side note,
there has to be some like classic perfume that makes
(10:46):
Americans connect rose to Grandma's. Or maybe it's that rose
was phased out of American cooking but not out of
American cosmetics, so things like lipstick and face powder were
still scented with it through certainly the middle of the
nineteen hundreds. I'll have to look into it when I
get a chance, or y'all write in if you know
more about perfumery than I do.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes, please, Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Orange blossom water is also used in cosmetics and in
folk and or traditional medicines, and I understand that in
Morocco it's a symbol of hospitality. You might like sprinkle
it on a guest's hands when you're welcoming them into
your home, or as part of religious ceremonies or stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yes, and as always, listeners, please write in about that
as well. Well. What about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It has been said to have various medicinal properties for
a really long time. Generally you're not you're not usually
consuming enough of it for it to make much of
a nutritive difference. But yeah, like I said, it's been
in traditional medicines for a very long time, and various
(11:57):
it and its components are being instigated for different potentially
cool properties. But yeah, saber motto, saber motto. Indeed, Well,
we have a couple numbers for you, just a couple.
Uh So, I couldn't track down like industrial numbers about
how much of this stuff is produced, but I will
(12:19):
say that some thousand pounds of flowers go into making
just one pound of neuuri oil. How much orange blossom
water that creates, I don't know. I couldn't find that out.
There are a few orange blossom, like bitter orange blossom
festivals around the world in places where they have been
(12:41):
traditionally grown. One of them in Marrakesh in Morocco every
spring is called the Zaia Festival. Oh, I didn't look
it up, and I'm having regrets, but we're just going
to keep on going right now. That was in its
thirteenth year in twenty twenty five, and it's based on
like home distillation traditions and springtime celebrations and went public
(13:06):
thirteen years ago to encourage I mean, you know, commerce
and education, as most festivals do. I read that the
organizing association is applying to get the area's orange blossom
traditions recognized by UNESCO.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So that's pretty cool. That is cool. Another thing you
listeners will have to write in about if you have
attended or no more.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Oh yeah, yeah right, and I read about similar things
in Crete and in Italy, so write let us know.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
But now we must peel open a bit of a
difficult history.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, yep, uh yeah, we're going to do that, but
first we are going to take a quick break for
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. So oranges a whole
different episode, one that we've already done but could probably
revisit with specific varieties.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah. Yeah, the various bitter orange varieties are super interesting,
and various sweet varieties are super interesting. They're all pretty cool, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
And have many applications throughout history doing this one.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And sometimes people just don't specify whether they were talking
about sweet versus bitter oranges in the historical literature, which
is really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It is fun and gave me a great headache and
a deletion a lot of stuff. I'd already put it
in the outline, but we'll talk about that a little
bit more later. Seville oranges the orange often in question
when it comes to the early history of orange blossom
water likely originated in Asia through trade routes. They traveled
(14:59):
to the Middle East and North Africa, and then up
to Europe in the eighth or ninth century CE, perhaps
through invaders from North Africa. Sweet oranges arrived in Europe
through a similar path, but much later centuries later. Yeah.
These types of distilled waters have a long history of
use in the Middle East as an aroma or as
(15:21):
a flavoring for desserts beverages, these types being obviously orange
blossomed water distillation has been around for thousands of years,
but Arab scholars were some of the first to refine
the method. Around the eighth century CE, the techniques made
their way to Europe, where over the centuries they were
refined even further.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yep and distilled waters might have originated as like a
byproduct of the concentrated oils that people were after, but
they pretty quickly became embedded in the cultures of the
peoples who produced them as valuable unto themselves.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
The cultivation of bitter oranges in Europe particularly took off
in the Mediterranean. People in Sicily were growing bitter oranges
by the eleventh century or earlier, and they were using
orange blossom water as early as the fourteenth century.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Arabs brought better oranges to southern Spain and were cultivating
them there around the same time, like the eleventh century
or so, and specifically around the city of Seville, where
the trees lined the streets. To this day, the oranges
became associated with the city and the wider province, to
the point that they eventually took on the name Saville oranges.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
In the early days in Europe, orange blossom water was
primarily used for things like perfumes or prescribed Medicinally. It
was used culinarily, but less so. Orange blossom water was
less available and more expensive to produce than rose water
at the time, so Europeans typically used rose water over
orange blossom water when cooking.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And this kind of just makes sense, like you could
grow roses more successfully in a lot more places then
you can grow orange trees. Though in several places like
Crete and Marrakesh, orange blossom water distillation became a practice
handed down specifically from mother to daughter.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
When the Spanish, Italians, and Portuguese started colonizing parts of
the Americas in the fourteen hundreds fifteen hundreds, they brought
bitter oranges with them. They planted them where they thought
they would grow, and they particularly took off in Florida
after the Spanish planted them there in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, Spanish colonization of Mexico is how orange blossomed water
eventually wound up in Pentamorphos.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
People in France were growing Seville oranges by the sixteenth century,
specifically to produce orange flower water or use as a
fragrance and flavoring agent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
They were mostly, perhaps entirely grown in the south and
made it over into the Ligurian area of Italy like
the coastal northwest around the same time, and those old
orange blossom products that the Neurolean the flower water became
like a major part of the economy there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yes, and a century later this ingredient was more widespread
across Europe's culinary landscapes, so people were really accepting this
orange blossom water. The orange trees, though, didn't grow well
during European winters, so growers built greenhouses specifically for citrus
(18:29):
during the Renaissance period. This also allowed for cultivating of
the oranges further north. We've talked about this in past
citrus episodes.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah. So. By the
sixteen hundreds, orange flower water was a very posh flavoring
around Europe, partially because it was so expensive, so like
feasts might have featured a dessert course accompanied by a
small fountain of orange flower water, not even for consuming,
(18:57):
just like for the scent. It remained a popular ingredient
in cosmetics and fragrances too, based on these perceived health properties,
and sometimes because it was considered say it with me and.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's been so long. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Using it in drinks and both sweet and savory dishes
was something of a status symbol in England and France
around the seventeen hundreds. I read in a couple of
places that France's madelines that like small scallop shaped cake
herb scallop shell shaped cake, that they originally were flavored
with orange flower water, though I don't think that came
(19:39):
up at our Madeline episode reading, because we didn't mention it.
In that episode. We mentioned citrus zest, but not orange
flower water. Supposedly, Marie Antoinette was a fan of orange
blossom water baths. By the early eighteen hundreds, it was
becoming slightly less expensive, especially diluted versions partially, you know,
(20:01):
thanks to the crimes against humanity that had been committed
by Europeans and the Caribbean, you know, all the genocide
and enslavement really opened up production in trade. Sorry, I'm
really mad about like a lot of stuff right now,
and it's leaking through via harsh but accurate language. Anyway,
Chefs in England and France and Italy and beyond used
(20:22):
orange flower water for event menus around that time. It
would go into things like lamb and poultry dishes, dressings
for savory salads and fruit salads, all kinds of desserts,
from cookies to custards, to jellies, to ices and ice creams.
It was often paired with almonds, and it was added
to or jotte, which is a sweetened almond syrup which
(20:43):
was used to make chilled drinks or to mulled wine.
It also wound up as an ingredient in Spain's version
of the Kingcake. And general note about all of this, like,
remember that vanilla was extremely expensive and only existed in
small quantities until like the middle to late eighteen hundreds,
(21:05):
you know, because it's the seed pod of a tropical
orchid that only opens for potential pollination one single morning
of its life, not making it easy on anybody. So
like until this enslaved twelve year old figured out how
to hand pollinate orchids, the vanilla orchids, vanilla was pricey,
so up through then things like rosewater and orange blossom
(21:26):
water were the go to flavorings for sweets that certainly
Americans would modernly use vanilla. And I know not everyone
as excited about vanilla as we are, but by the
late eighteen hundreds at least orange blossom water was being
used in like posh cocktail cities like New Orleans as
(21:48):
an ingredient in things like the Ramus Gin Fizz, which
is this gin cocktail with lemon and lime juice, little
orange blossom water, heavy cream, sugar, and an egg white,
shaken and bad and shaken until it is extremely frothy.
It is rumored to have been invented in the eighteen eighties.
So also, Queen Margarita, whom Margherita Pizza is supposedly named for,
(22:12):
was a fan of both dorolei and orange flower water,
and apparently her pastry chefs made this dish of lady
fingers with orange blossom water that they called the Queen's biscuits.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
The Queen's biscuit. Okay, all right, Well, now we're entering
into our promised a stage of confusion around sweet and
bitter oranges. But I think we've got it. I think so,
I think so. An American botanist by the name of
(22:46):
William Bartum wrote that oranges were flourishing in some parts
of Florida in seventeen seventy four, and he went out
of his way to mention how fragrant they smelled. By
the eighteen hundreds, oranges were growing in Georgia and South Carolina,
but an eighteen thirty five freeze and then another one
that came a few decades later pretty much killed them
off in those two states.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah and yeah, there's a lot of historical confusion about
sweet versus bitter oranges, and like when and where they
appeared in the Americas and how wide spreadly. I think
that most of the oranges in Florida up to the
eighteen sixties were bitter ones. But when the orange boom
(23:29):
took off there starting in the eighteen seventies, it.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Was because of the.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
New success success period of sweet oranges, which however, were
usually grafted grown by grafting the branches of sweet oranges
onto bitter orange rootstocks.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yep, so there we are here. Here's some of my
remaining notes from my Florida section history. In nineteen oh nine,
the sweet orange flower bossom was chosen as Florida's staked flower,
(24:12):
and then sometime between nineteen forty nine to nineteen fifty,
a man named Harry Yeasel began manufacturing and selling orange
blossom perfume out of Florida, presumably sweet orange. This is
fascinating to me because I found all these almost like
legends about him, and I tried to get to the
(24:34):
bottom of it, and I was like, I can't get
any proof, but you can find existence of his products.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, like you can buy it on the eBay. Yes, so,
But there were all these like that was the scent
they used to it was some college bowl.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
They perfumed it with his perfume. But I couldn't get
I couldn't find any evidence of it than people just
repeating it like it was a myth. They turned yes
story at night. So again, listeners, if you know any
more about this, I would love to know. I really
tried to get to the bottom of that. H but
(25:19):
moving on into more recent years, orange flower water has
become more widely available around the globe and a lot
more people use it than before. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, and some people really are coming back into it.
I think, however, kill joy corner, as this is a
natural product. Climate change is worrisome. Over the past few years,
farms in places like Morocco have seen droughts that affected crops.
On this one particular five hours I was reading about
flower production was down like twenty five percent. Though they
(25:53):
did find that the smaller, drier flowers were richer than
usual in oil production kind of broke even on oil production,
but also the balance of you know, volatile compounds and
the oils was different, so it's smelled different than it
usually does. So yeah, it's just it's making people shift
and work on the fly, which is a pain. And
(26:17):
you know, farming is already a very difficult thing to do,
and so yeah, climate change is not helping.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No, no, And so much of this takes so much planning. Anyway,
if you lose like a whole crop or something, that's devastating.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, luckily, I mean, citrus trees are evergreen for the
most part. Bitter oranges are evergreen. And so depending on
how you treat the trees, you can get a pretty
prolonged season for blossoms. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, well on that, I think that's what we have
to say about orange blossom water for now.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah. Yeah, we certainly didn't do pages of research about
neuroli oil.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
There was no deep confusion about the crusades. Surely not.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, but we would love to hear from y'all if
you have a family recipe or a cocktail that you make,
or a memory, we would love to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yes we would, But that is what we have to
say for now.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors. And we're back, Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you, and.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
We're back with listen. Yeah sunny day. Yes. Oh so
today we have two let me double check two letters
about Tarragon. Oh yay. Love when we can get a
(28:24):
theme going. But email is about whatever we like. Oh yeah,
all right, So Colleen wrote, loved the episode on Tarragon.
I learned a lot, especially the differences between them. Thank you.
I know. Now I have French tarragon. It doesn't flower
much and has an annis taste. It is very tough
(28:45):
here in eastern Ontario, surviving in a pot on the
porch where it gets below negative twenty five degrees celsius
by accident at first, but has done it several years
in a row. I actually don't like it that much,
except with chicken. It doesn't taste like licorice, and is
(29:05):
very nice if you add it when you're frying up
some chicken or in a pot pie. Heard you like
pet pictures. Ruric and Petie are brothers from other mothers.
Thanks for the pot. It lulls me to sleep as
I relax and learn. I listen the next day if
I missed too much or had to stop because I
got too hungry. Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yes, yes, And included our pictures of the of the
surprisingly hardy French tarragon plant. Yes, and the kidders who
are cuddled up next to each other. There is a
ginger one, a ginger tabby, and a tabby tabby, a
brown tabby, and they are their little faces are like
(29:49):
making a little heart shape.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
The way that they're pressed up next to each other.
It's adorable. It's really cute. It's adorable. I'm a little
jealous that your cats actually like each other. Orkapedies seem
to be, at least in this picture they are getting along.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, yes, I feel like you don't put your face
on someone when you sleep if you dislike them.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean, it's true unless you are really you like
to play with fire otherwise yeah yeah, yeah, so you
can let us know calling you if that's the case. Yes,
But always appreciated pet photos. And I'm glad you learned
about tear ground that I actually learned a lot from
(30:35):
that one too. Yeah yeah, I had no idea about
the varieties.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah yeah, yeah, no. Putting some in some like pan
fried chicken sounds amazing. I've never made a pot pie.
And now I'm like, like, Lauren, what are you doing
with your life?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You need to fix this immediately apparently.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, Bart wrote It's been a while since I've written
in but when I saw you were doing an episode
on Tarragon, I literally squeeed a little, and once you
asked for recipes, I just had to write. I love
cooking with what I jokingly referred to as opinionated ingredients,
and tarragon definitely falls into that category, especially fresh tarragon.
(31:21):
I adore the stuff, but sadly it's a real rarity here.
One of our supermarkets gets a few bags of fresh
tarragon in a few times a year. I check for
it in the shelf each and every week, and when
I see it, yoink. My general rule for fresh teragon
is that if it has tomato in it, it will
work with fresh teragon. So while my pack lasts all
substitute it in for basil, time sage or rosemary in
(31:44):
anything I'm cooking with tomatoes, and so far, at least
it's always worked out great. I also make sure to
intentionally cook a few dishes that simply depend on fresh
tarragon to work, my absolute favorites being very much related.
One tarragon mashed potatoes finely chop about tablespoon of the
fresh leaves per adult portion and mix them in at
(32:04):
the very end just before serving. And two tearragon potato
salad needs nothing more than cold potatoes, mashed mayo taste,
fresh tarragon to taste, and a few grinds of black pepper.
In terms of dried tarragon, again, if it has tomatoes
in it, you can't go wrong, but it works especially
well in two dishes I cook very regularly. First, my
(32:26):
quick and easy tarragon chicken mayo for two and that
includes four teaspoons of mayo, two teaspoons of white wine vinegar,
a quarter teaspoon of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of
dried tarragon, and one hundred grams of finely diced cooked chicken,
all mixed into a paste and then spread on some
bread for an amazing lunch in minutes. And second, tomato
(32:47):
and tarragon green beans also works great with fresh This
one takes a little bit more describing, but is still
shockingly simple, so okay for two servings. Start with a
little olive and vegetable oil in the bottom of a
pan and soften a medium sized red onion for about
five minutes. Then add two cloves of minced garlic for
another couple minutes or so. Add two hundred grams of topped,
(33:07):
tailed and haved fine green beans or very thinly sliced
stringless French beans or runner beans. Splash water, two dice tomatoes,
the riper the better, cover and simmer until the tomatoes
go to mush and the beans are tender. Uncover and
turn up the heat for a few minutes.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
At the end.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
If there's too much liquid left for your liking, then
season with ground black pepper, tarragon, and optionally some parsley
and or chives. Then serve. I find with all the
umami from the tomato, no salt is needed, and I'm
under doctor's orders to cut that right now, but feel
free to add a little if desired. Before I started
to eat more healthily, I also loved adding a little
(33:45):
dried tarragon and garlic powder to my corn flour when
frying chicken breasts. But, like I say, I have to
be healthy these days, so I haven't done that in
some time.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Well I'm sorry to say. That sounds delicious. That delicious, Yeah,
but these other recipes do too.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Oh yeah yeah, and like maybe yeah, I'm like, maybe
I haven't been using tarragon correctly, like because I feel
like I didn't know about the tomato pairing particularly.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, I've recently. I don't know how, it's probably the
algorithm knows me. But I recently ran into you should
be using arragon and tomato as a pairing. So we'll
have to look into that.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'll have to see see what's available
at my grocery store. You know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I also love your description of Terragon as an opinionated
which I think is accurate.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh yeah, oh yeah no, And I also love opinionated ingredients.
I'm like, no, that's where the flavor is. That's I
want more of that, please, thank you?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah no, all of this sounds lovely us and thank
you so much for taking the time to send the
to us. Thanks to both of these listeners for writing
in uh huh. If you would like to write to us,
you can our email us hello at saborpod dot com.
We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Save is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts to
my heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
(35:36):
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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