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