How much zest from one orange

Orange zest is responsible for making a lot of food taste better and brighter! Orange zest is the outermost rind of the orange. Zesting an orange with a knife is pretty simple. You just need to be careful. All you need to do is peel the outer part of the orange with a downward stroke of the knife.

Once you have perfectly translucent orange peels, you can start chopping them as fine as you want. Zesting an orange with a peeler is almost as easy as peeling potatoes. To peel your orange with a peeler drag the blade down the orange skin, creating strips of orange peel. A citrus zester is a handy tool to make fine orange ribbons, perfect to decorate your cakes, pies, and even drinks. This gadget is definitely worth having if you love making fancy-looking dishes and cocktails! To zest an orange with a zester, hold the orange in your non-dominant hand with the orange facing up.

With your dominant hand, hold the zester with the sharp blades facing down. Gently pull down to shave across the fruit, scraping off the gorgeous orange zest.

Repeat the process until you have the amount of orange zest you need. Zesting an orange with a zester results in curly orange zest ribbons that you can directly use.

However, if you want finer zest, you can simply chop them into tiny pieces. This is the easiest and most efficient method to zest an orange.

A microplane grater produces fine zest instantly. Hold the orange in your non-dominant hand, and the grater in your dominant hand with the blades facing down.

Push the orange in the opposite direction of the blades. Remember, you only need the orange part of the skin. So, if the surface you grate starts to show some white spots, move to another area of the orange. Once you finish grating your whole orange, lightly tap your grater on a bowl or flat surface to release the orange zest that might be stuck.

You can also zest an orange with a classic box grater. Simply place your grater on a flat and sturdy surface and hold it with your non-dominant hand, and hold the orange with your dominant hand. Gently push and drag the orange with a vertical motion onto the finest blades to scrape the zest off. Keep rotating the orange to avoid grating into the pith layer. Once you have all the zest you need, gently tap the grater to release any orange zest that is stuck in the blades.

Orange and other citrus fruits have two layers of skin. Its highly acidic juice has a very strong bitter taste. The bergamot orange is used commercially to in perfumes. It can also be found is tiny amounts as a flavoring in some coffees and teas. An orange is either a round, sweet, juicy fruit or a round, bitter fruit.

Both its skin called a peel and the fleshy inside called pulp are most often orange in color, however, some varieties are a bit more yellowish or reddish. Oranges, like most citrus fruit do not continue to ripen after they are picked from the tree or bush. As the name implies, sweet oranges do taste sweet, but they often have a slight tart kick to them also.

At the height of the season, real ripe oranges basically just taste deliciously sweet. Bitter types of oranges are normally not eaten raw but cooked into preserves, sauces and marmalades. Some are even used to make commercial non-food products.

Even though the flavor will change, both lemon and grapefruit can be used as a replacement. Before you cut an orange for either a wedge, segment or a slice, wash off the orange peel under cool running water. This will help keep from getting any remaining dirt or debris onto the inside of the orange.

Place the orange on the cutting board on its side. Cut across the orange dividing it in half. With this cut you are slicing the segments in half. Next slice the halves into angled shapes making the wedges the width you want for your recipe. For this cut it is helpful to have a well sharpened knife to remove the segments from the membranes.

Next begin to take off sections of the peel by cutting from the top down the outside of the orange. Repeat until you have removed all of the skin and membrane on the outside of the orange; you are left with just a ball of orange fleshy segments. While holding the orange in your hand, cut out the segments from between the separating membranes.

Place the orange the cutting board on its side. Using a sharp knife cut off both ends of the orange. Next cut across the orange into slices this cuts through each segment the width you need for you recipe. A zester makes very finely grated pieces of orange peel.

Both Valencia and navel oranges are the perfect choice for juicing. For a fun twist, a blood orange will give your drink a pinkish color. Sor a sweeter orange juice, select either a clementine or a tangerine to make your drink. Cut the oranges in half and remove any seeds.

Place the orange half on the juicer and manually twist the orange while applying some downward pressure. Place the orange pieces into the blender and cover with some water or other juices.

Blend and enjoy. Answer: Most essential oils are not food-grade and should not be used in baking. If you do have an essential oil that is food grade, you could possibly substitute it for orange zest but it really wouldn't have quite the same taste in most recipes because the zest adds texture as well as flavor and smell. Yes, everything on HubPages and related sites is free for people to view and it is free for people to join and post their own articles.

I encourage you to join us if you are interested! I love using orange zest for baking cakes. Thanks for sharing this very informative hub. Well done. Great information on using orange zest. I will grate some zest from my oranges for a recipe occasionally. I did not realize that it could be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.

Thanks for the different ways on how to zest an orange and the meaning behind zesting an orange. Very useful when it comes to cooking. Voted up. You can buy this in the spice section of the store where dried zest is sometimes available. Or you can make your own using oranges in one of the ways I show in this article. Great to know.

The complete explanations made it easy to follow. Ideas and possibilities are boundless. Thanks prairieprincess--you know since I've done this Hub I'm using orange zest more too! I knew nothing about orange zest but I like to bake, so this could come in handy some day.

This is interesting to me because i like learning about food and learning different ways to use it. Virginia, this is wonderful! I did not know any of this about orange zest, and never thought of using it an a recipe. Now my brain is going, thinking of ways I might be able to use it in a recipe.

Voted up and everything but useful, and shared. Ashley--I always enjoy writing about something specific like orange zest because I learn new things. Before writing this Hub, I didn't know orange zest could substitute for juice or extract. SethPipkin--Orange zest is a pretty specialized ingredient, but at least you'll know what it is if you run across it in cooking!

I thought this article was eye-catching because I did not know what orange zest was. I had only previous knowledge that the peel was bitter and had always thrown it out. This relates to my own experience because I thought that the peel was inedible so would never eaten it before, but thought that was funny because I have previously eaten orange zest.

I find orange zest interesting because of the flavor it can give to some foods. I don't use oranges much for anything but eating but i was fascinated by the ways you can use orange zest and what it is in general. Great instructions. I like the idea of the orange zest and the sugar mix. Never tried that before. Thanks for the info.