WEBVTT - The Crushable Orange Blossom Water Episode 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.160 Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.560 I'm any Rey and I'm Lauren vocal Bam, and today 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.160 we have an episode for you about orange blossom water. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:22.600 Yes, and what a tangled wave webb it weaves. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:27.160 Oh my goodness, I have never been so mad at 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.520 an outline that I am simultaneously so delighted by. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.440 Yes. Yeah, well with that teaser. Is there any particular 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.120 reason this was on your mind? 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.199 Bloord, You know there there was, but it could have 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.239 been anything at this juncture. I think maybe like we 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.000 had mentioned it in passing in something else, or maybe 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:51.560 it was just on my list for a long time, 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.480 because when we did rose Water, I was like, oh yeah, 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.600 and add that one to the list. At any rate, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:58.280 here we are. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:06.319 Here, we are here, we are for past episodes that 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:10.480 might be relevant. You can see our orange episode. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:10.959 And Sweet Oranges. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:12.160 Uh huh. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.640 We've got a couple other orange and citrus episodes in 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:15.160 their shirt. 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.520 Yes, also rose Water. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:26.640 Right, also Orgatt Pando Mortos, our New Orleans cocktail culture 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:33.240 episode regarding specifically the Ramos Gin Fizz. There's a bunch 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:39.600 of others, like Turkish Delight, maybe Pavlova I can't remember 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.759 all of the things that this one touches on, and 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.720 as we frequently say, we have no idea what we've 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.840 done in the past or possibly what we're doing right now. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:53.720 That's just how we roll. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.880 Vaguely related. You can bop over to Stuff to Blow 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:04.240 Your Mind the podcast for our guest episode with Joe 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:10.079 covering Ambergris for another interesting food flavoring. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.320 Indeed, uh huh uh. 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.399 Currasow is vaguely related due to the type of orange 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.560 that we're going to be talking about. That that's why, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:23.880 that's why it was specifically on my mind because we 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:25.040 just talked about carosow. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.120 Here we are, there, we go, Okay, we've got to 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.800 the bottom of that mystery. Well, speaking of Still to 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.519 Blow your Mind, we were fortunate enough to get to 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.720 guests on that show. Depending on when you listen to this, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.359 it's coming out next week or maybe it's already out. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.880 But it's about interesting things that can happen to food 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.720 when they're stored in containers, and it is very interesting. 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:52.519 As boring as that might sound. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:59.680 Yeah, yes, we talk about lasagna batteries and how many 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.400 of them it would take to power a significant amount 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:05.480 of stuff. 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.520 So yes, and if you have the answer to that, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:10.920 we actually didn't arrive at that. 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.440 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. How many Lasagnas would it 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:19.239 take to power in nation through their electrical capacity? 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:24.200 You'll have to see any episode for more on. We're 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.360 just gonna leave it in mystery, but we won't leave 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.640 you in mystery about this, right, Yes, as much as 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:39.240 we can. Yeah, that's to our best capacity exactly, which 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.200 brings us to our question. Orange blossom water. 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:46.600 What is it? 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:47.840 Well? 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.520 Orange blossom water is a type of liquid flavoring and 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:57.119 or scent that's made by processing the flowers of bitter oranges. Basically, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.960 you steam to still out like the fun flavorful oil, 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.680 and then separate the oils from the water that you've added. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.200 The remaining water is still chock full of lovely things. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:11.920 It smells sweet and tastes bitter, with citrusy, green, fruity, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.600 and kind of powdery floral flavors. It's clear to very 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.000 pale gold and color, and is used mostly in sweet 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:24.760 dishes and drinks like pastries and sweetbreads and cakes, or 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.560 to make dowsing syrups for things like bucklava, or in 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.960 creamy puddings and frozen desserts or in citrusy cocktails, but 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.920 it can compliment savory dishes too. I think that in 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:43.640 cuisines that favor vanilla, it is so orange blossom water 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.680 that is so old fashioned that it's new again. But 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.520 there are a lot of cuisines that it never left, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:55.240 where it inspires a lot of fondness and nostalgia. It's 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.680 like it's like putting your face in a citrus tree 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.800 in full bloom, just like heady and warm and enveloping 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.880 and a little bit invigorating. It's like a It's like 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:08.880 the feeling that you get when you realize you have 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.200 a crush on someone. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:21.839 Yeah. It's a really bright, happy and in some cases overwhelming. 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:27.359 Yeah yeah, leaves you a little bit breathless. So these 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.400 specific orange blossoms in question are those of the Seville 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.320 orange or the bitter orange or sour orange, botanical name 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:40.120 Citrus oorentium. The fruit itself is too bitter and sour 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.239 to eat out of hand, just like a real punch 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.520 in the face, but the juice and the peel can 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.840 be used in sweet and savory dishes and drinks. They're 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.880 the signature citrus for English style marmalade. The blossoms, which 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.640 bloom in clusters of small, white, fragrant flowers, have some 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.120 of those same bitter and citrusy flavors along with right, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:00.960 like a little bit of green and this sort of 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:06.479 fruity grapey twinge, some real pretty florals, and then that 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.839 signature sweet scent. And by the way, if you never 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.200 have put your face near living citrus blossoms, I cannot 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:19.040 recommend it enough. It is so nice noted. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.360 come over, I've got a lime tree for orange blossom water. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.719 The flowers are usually picked by hand in the hours 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.159 immediately following sunrise, before the heat of the day has 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.680 the chance to like dry the flowers out, and then 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.000 they are processed asap, just right away if you can. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.920 The petals of orange blossoms contain a number of volatile 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:48.400 essential oils that is naturally occurring plant based, smelly oily stuff. 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.080 The oil that you get from bitter orange blossoms is 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.120 called neuroli. It's relatively expensive because it takes like a 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.719 lot of flowers to get a little oil, though the 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.640 resulting oil is pretty strong and is used mostly in 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.599 perfumery and other cosmetics. You might have heard of neurally oil. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.440 But to get neurally oil out of orange blossoms, especially 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.360 on a commercial scale, you gotta distill them out. So, Okay, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.040 everything has a boiling point, right, a point at which 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:23.320 whatever liquid stuff will vaporize, and that boiling point differs 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.280 slightly for pretty much everything. And you can use this 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.840 science fact to separate out all kinds of interesting things 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.280 from their original homes just by boiling them in water. 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.280 So you can get the ethanol out of a grain 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.280 and fruit mash and concentrate it into liquor, or you 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.119 can get the flavors out of juniper and citrus, peel 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.360 and annis, etc. Out of all of those botanicals in 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:52.040 order to flavor gin. Distillation is heating stuff in or 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.960 with water to the boiling point of whatever you're interested in, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.440 and then collecting the vapors and cooling them back into 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.400 a liquid. When you do this with orange blossoms, you 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.480 get a mixture of water and neuroli. Because oils and 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.600 waters don't like each other very much, the oils will 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.280 separate out and can be pretty easily filtered or redistilled, 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.240 leaving you with a colorless water that still contains an 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:20.680 impressively strong punch of orange blossominess. If the product has 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.480 a golden tint to it, it's not because the color 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.520 came through in the distillation. It's because it's been exposed 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.679 to sunlight at some point. The color comes from chemical 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:38.040 reactions among the compounds in the blossom water. If you 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.280 happen to have access to bitter orange trees, you can 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.080 make this at home. Check the internet for recipes. You 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.840 can try other types of citrus flowers, obviously they won't 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.040 have exactly the same flavors. You can also find orange 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.880 blossom water for sale and markets, especially ones with like 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:57.360 a good Middle Eastern import section, or sometimes alongside cocktail 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.520 flavorings or coffee flavorings, or maybe in the bake section. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.160 And yeah, it plays really well with like warm and 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:12.280 or bitter flavors, things like chocolate, nuts, especially almonds, warm spices. 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:13.839 You can also use it. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.280 To play off of like fruity or fresh flavors, like 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:21.040 in dressings for fruit salads or vegetable salads. It's lovely 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.600 and cold drinks like lemonade or fruity punches, or just 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.280 sparkling or still water. It's also nice in hot drinks 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.960 like tea or coffee. Or even just hot water. It 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.960 can also help cut or like add complexity to rich 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.720 flavors like it goes well with the sweetened cheese pastries, 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.679 or like a cheesecake or a rice pudding, or even 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:47.640 in savory dishes like meat pies. A lot of Middle 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.720 Eastern desserts call for couture. I think I'm not rolling 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.320 my r NF, but I think I've got that nearly correct. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.440 It's a flavored syrup made with sugar, water, lemon juice, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.640 and a touch of orange blossom. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:09:59.880 And or rose. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.679 It can be used as an ingredient in stuff or 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:08.280 as a drizzle, dip or soak. And like rose water, 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.400 I will say that if you're using if you're going 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.200 to try using orange blossom water for the first time 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.120 at home, start with less than maybe you think that 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.160 you're gonna need like a quarter teaspoon, just a couple 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.760 of drops. It can be real potent, especially if you're 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.600 not used to it. And the line between like ooh 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.240 that's fun and like oh, that's soap is just easy 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:35.600 to trip over. The orange blossom water is a bit 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:42.600 more gentle and less grandma than rose water. And side note, 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.120 there has to be some like classic perfume that makes 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.640 Americans connect rose to Grandma's. Or maybe it's that rose 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.560 was phased out of American cooking but not out of 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.240 American cosmetics, so things like lipstick and face powder were 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.559 still scented with it through certainly the middle of the 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.200 nineteen hundreds. I'll have to look into it when I 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:03.920 get a chance, or y'all write in if you know 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:05.840 more about perfumery than I do. 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.720 Yes, please, Yeah, Yeah. 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.640 Orange blossom water is also used in cosmetics and in 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.880 folk and or traditional medicines, and I understand that in 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.240 Morocco it's a symbol of hospitality. You might like sprinkle 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.480 it on a guest's hands when you're welcoming them into 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.560 your home, or as part of religious ceremonies or stuff 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:24.800 like that. 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.800 Yes, and as always, listeners, please write in about that 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.840 as well. Well. What about the nutrition. 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.520 It has been said to have various medicinal properties for 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.040 a really long time. Generally you're not you're not usually 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.160 consuming enough of it for it to make much of 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:52.800 a nutritive difference. But yeah, like I said, it's been 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.319 in traditional medicines for a very long time, and various 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.760 it and its components are being instigated for different potentially 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:08.560 cool properties. But yeah, saber motto, saber motto. Indeed, Well, 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.920 we have a couple numbers for you, just a couple. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.840 Uh So, I couldn't track down like industrial numbers about 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.319 how much of this stuff is produced, but I will 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.560 say that some thousand pounds of flowers go into making 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.600 just one pound of neuuri oil. How much orange blossom 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.280 water that creates, I don't know. I couldn't find that out. 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.800 There are a few orange blossom, like bitter orange blossom 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.959 festivals around the world in places where they have been 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:45.960 traditionally grown. One of them in Marrakesh in Morocco every 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.600 spring is called the Zaia Festival. Oh, I didn't look 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.960 it up, and I'm having regrets, but we're just going 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.240 to keep on going right now. That was in its 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.880 thirteenth year in twenty twenty five, and it's based on 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:05.959 like home distillation traditions and springtime celebrations and went public 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.959 thirteen years ago to encourage I mean, you know, commerce 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.760 and education, as most festivals do. I read that the 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:18.240 organizing association is applying to get the area's orange blossom 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:19.760 traditions recognized by UNESCO. 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.680 So that's pretty cool. That is cool. Another thing you 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.920 listeners will have to write in about if you have 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:28.720 attended or no more. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.160 Oh yeah, yeah right, and I read about similar things 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:39.280 in Crete and in Italy, so write let us know. 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.520 But now we must peel open a bit of a 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:46.840 difficult history. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.000 Yeah, yep, uh yeah, we're going to do that, but 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.800 first we are going to take a quick break for 0:13:52.840 --> 0:14:03.520 word from our sponsors, and we're back. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:08.200 Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. So oranges a whole 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.520 different episode, one that we've already done but could probably 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.400 revisit with specific varieties. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:20.520 Yeah. Yeah, the various bitter orange varieties are super interesting, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:27.359 and various sweet varieties are super interesting. They're all pretty cool, yes. 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.560 And have many applications throughout history doing this one. 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.920 And sometimes people just don't specify whether they were talking 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.120 about sweet versus bitter oranges in the historical literature, which 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:37.720 is really fun. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.440 It is fun and gave me a great headache and 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.760 a deletion a lot of stuff. I'd already put it 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.280 in the outline, but we'll talk about that a little 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.840 bit more later. Seville oranges the orange often in question 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.000 when it comes to the early history of orange blossom 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:59.800 water likely originated in Asia through trade routes. They traveled 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.480 to the Middle East and North Africa, and then up 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.760 to Europe in the eighth or ninth century CE, perhaps 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.280 through invaders from North Africa. Sweet oranges arrived in Europe 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.520 through a similar path, but much later centuries later. Yeah. 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.720 These types of distilled waters have a long history of 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.400 use in the Middle East as an aroma or as 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.160 a flavoring for desserts beverages, these types being obviously orange 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:30.320 blossomed water distillation has been around for thousands of years, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.240 but Arab scholars were some of the first to refine 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.640 the method. Around the eighth century CE, the techniques made 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.320 their way to Europe, where over the centuries they were 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:41.720 refined even further. 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.520 Yep and distilled waters might have originated as like a 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:51.520 byproduct of the concentrated oils that people were after, but 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.480 they pretty quickly became embedded in the cultures of the 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.239 peoples who produced them as valuable unto themselves. 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.160 The cultivation of bitter oranges in Europe particularly took off 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.840 in the Mediterranean. People in Sicily were growing bitter oranges 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.920 by the eleventh century or earlier, and they were using 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.880 orange blossom water as early as the fourteenth century. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.280 Arabs brought better oranges to southern Spain and were cultivating 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.000 them there around the same time, like the eleventh century 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.840 or so, and specifically around the city of Seville, where 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.400 the trees lined the streets. To this day, the oranges 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.400 became associated with the city and the wider province, to 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.200 the point that they eventually took on the name Saville oranges. 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.680 In the early days in Europe, orange blossom water was 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.320 primarily used for things like perfumes or prescribed Medicinally. It 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:47.160 was used culinarily, but less so. Orange blossom water was 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.080 less available and more expensive to produce than rose water 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.480 at the time, so Europeans typically used rose water over 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.200 orange blossom water when cooking. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.320 And this kind of just makes sense, like you could 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.120 grow roses more successfully in a lot more places then 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:04.080 you can grow orange trees. Though in several places like 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.800 Crete and Marrakesh, orange blossom water distillation became a practice 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:09.840 handed down specifically from mother to daughter. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.240 When the Spanish, Italians, and Portuguese started colonizing parts of 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.560 the Americas in the fourteen hundreds fifteen hundreds, they brought 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.920 bitter oranges with them. They planted them where they thought 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.120 they would grow, and they particularly took off in Florida 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.600 after the Spanish planted them there in the sixteenth century. 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.440 Yeah, Spanish colonization of Mexico is how orange blossomed water 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.960 eventually wound up in Pentamorphos. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.919 People in France were growing Seville oranges by the sixteenth century, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.280 specifically to produce orange flower water or use as a 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.680 fragrance and flavoring agent. Yeah. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:52.080 They were mostly, perhaps entirely grown in the south and 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.879 made it over into the Ligurian area of Italy like 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:00.320 the coastal northwest around the same time, and those old 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.359 orange blossom products that the Neurolean the flower water became 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.240 like a major part of the economy there. 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:14.879 Yes, and a century later this ingredient was more widespread 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.359 across Europe's culinary landscapes, so people were really accepting this 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:24.040 orange blossom water. The orange trees, though, didn't grow well 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.800 during European winters, so growers built greenhouses specifically for citrus 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.639 during the Renaissance period. This also allowed for cultivating of 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.639 the oranges further north. We've talked about this in past 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:36.919 citrus episodes. 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.119 Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah. So. By the 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.359 sixteen hundreds, orange flower water was a very posh flavoring 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.480 around Europe, partially because it was so expensive, so like 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.479 feasts might have featured a dessert course accompanied by a 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.119 small fountain of orange flower water, not even for consuming, 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.000 just like for the scent. It remained a popular ingredient 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.160 in cosmetics and fragrances too, based on these perceived health properties, 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.920 and sometimes because it was considered say it with me and. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:18.680 Yeah, yeah, it's been so long. Yeah. 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.080 Using it in drinks and both sweet and savory dishes 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.639 was something of a status symbol in England and France 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.600 around the seventeen hundreds. I read in a couple of 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:32.359 places that France's madelines that like small scallop shaped cake 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.160 herb scallop shell shaped cake, that they originally were flavored 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:39.680 with orange flower water, though I don't think that came 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.320 up at our Madeline episode reading, because we didn't mention it. 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.440 In that episode. We mentioned citrus zest, but not orange 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:51.000 flower water. Supposedly, Marie Antoinette was a fan of orange 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:55.080 blossom water baths. By the early eighteen hundreds, it was 0:19:55.119 --> 0:20:00.840 becoming slightly less expensive, especially diluted versions partially, you know, 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.800 thanks to the crimes against humanity that had been committed 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.480 by Europeans and the Caribbean, you know, all the genocide 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.680 and enslavement really opened up production in trade. Sorry, I'm 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:12.159 really mad about like a lot of stuff right now, 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:16.800 and it's leaking through via harsh but accurate language. Anyway, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.720 Chefs in England and France and Italy and beyond used 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.680 orange flower water for event menus around that time. It 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.200 would go into things like lamb and poultry dishes, dressings 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.360 for savory salads and fruit salads, all kinds of desserts, 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:37.000 from cookies to custards, to jellies, to ices and ice creams. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.040 It was often paired with almonds, and it was added 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.920 to or jotte, which is a sweetened almond syrup which 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.359 was used to make chilled drinks or to mulled wine. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.040 It also wound up as an ingredient in Spain's version 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:56.159 of the Kingcake. And general note about all of this, like, 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:01.320 remember that vanilla was extremely expensive and only existed in 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.120 small quantities until like the middle to late eighteen hundreds, 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:07.840 you know, because it's the seed pod of a tropical 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.359 orchid that only opens for potential pollination one single morning 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:15.959 of its life, not making it easy on anybody. So 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.879 like until this enslaved twelve year old figured out how 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.240 to hand pollinate orchids, the vanilla orchids, vanilla was pricey, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.639 so up through then things like rosewater and orange blossom 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:31.199 water were the go to flavorings for sweets that certainly 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:36.000 Americans would modernly use vanilla. And I know not everyone 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:43.000 as excited about vanilla as we are, but by the 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.080 late eighteen hundreds at least orange blossom water was being 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.919 used in like posh cocktail cities like New Orleans as 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.240 an ingredient in things like the Ramus Gin Fizz, which 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:54.800 is this gin cocktail with lemon and lime juice, little 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.680 orange blossom water, heavy cream, sugar, and an egg white, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.520 shaken and bad and shaken until it is extremely frothy. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:05.800 It is rumored to have been invented in the eighteen eighties. 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:12.000 So also, Queen Margarita, whom Margherita Pizza is supposedly named for, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:14.920 was a fan of both dorolei and orange flower water, 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.680 and apparently her pastry chefs made this dish of lady 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:24.080 fingers with orange blossom water that they called the Queen's biscuits. 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:31.040 The Queen's biscuit. Okay, all right, Well, now we're entering 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:38.000 into our promised a stage of confusion around sweet and 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:43.000 bitter oranges. But I think we've got it. I think so, 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:46.520 I think so. An American botanist by the name of 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.600 William Bartum wrote that oranges were flourishing in some parts 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:53.720 of Florida in seventeen seventy four, and he went out 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.520 of his way to mention how fragrant they smelled. By 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.760 the eighteen hundreds, oranges were growing in Georgia and South Carolina, 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.800 but an eighteen thirty five freeze and then another one 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.159 that came a few decades later pretty much killed them 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:07.399 off in those two states. 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:13.840 Yeah and yeah, there's a lot of historical confusion about 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.080 sweet versus bitter oranges, and like when and where they 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.919 appeared in the Americas and how wide spreadly. I think 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:24.760 that most of the oranges in Florida up to the 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:29.000 eighteen sixties were bitter ones. But when the orange boom 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.440 took off there starting in the eighteen seventies, it. 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:33.399 Was because of the. 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:42.520 New success success period of sweet oranges, which however, were 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:47.160 usually grafted grown by grafting the branches of sweet oranges 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:49.560 onto bitter orange rootstocks. 0:23:52.680 --> 0:24:01.359 Yep, so there we are here. Here's some of my 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:07.680 remaining notes from my Florida section history. In nineteen oh nine, 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:12.080 the sweet orange flower bossom was chosen as Florida's staked flower, 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:17.240 and then sometime between nineteen forty nine to nineteen fifty, 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:22.119 a man named Harry Yeasel began manufacturing and selling orange 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:26.480 blossom perfume out of Florida, presumably sweet orange. This is 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:32.280 fascinating to me because I found all these almost like 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:34.159 legends about him, and I tried to get to the 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:36.040 bottom of it, and I was like, I can't get 0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:40.080 any proof, but you can find existence of his products. 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:46.720 Yeah, like you can buy it on the eBay. Yes, so, 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:49.560 But there were all these like that was the scent 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:53.639 they used to it was some college bowl. 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:57.520 They perfumed it with his perfume. But I couldn't get 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:00.800 I couldn't find any evidence of it than people just 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.240 repeating it like it was a myth. They turned yes 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:10.560 story at night. So again, listeners, if you know any 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:13.159 more about this, I would love to know. I really 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:17.199 tried to get to the bottom of that. H but 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:23.560 moving on into more recent years, orange flower water has 0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:26.399 become more widely available around the globe and a lot 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:30.080 more people use it than before. Yeah. 0:25:30.200 --> 0:25:32.639 Yeah, and some people really are coming back into it. 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:38.000 I think, however, kill joy corner, as this is a 0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:42.200 natural product. Climate change is worrisome. Over the past few years, 0:25:42.240 --> 0:25:45.960 farms in places like Morocco have seen droughts that affected crops. 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:49.760 On this one particular five hours I was reading about 0:25:49.760 --> 0:25:53.760 flower production was down like twenty five percent. Though they 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:58.160 did find that the smaller, drier flowers were richer than 0:25:58.240 --> 0:26:01.840