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Understanding Citrus

Nothing awakens a half-asleep body like a morning sip of sharp orange juice or soothes illness like warmed lemon and honey. A glass of ice-cold lemonade is all you need to feel summery, and an afternoon making marmalade in the Seville orange season in January and February is a midwinter ray of sunshine.

My grandma starts her day with half a grapefruit, cutting into it with a spoon and bursting through the segments, creating a spray of juice that showers everyone at the table. I once thought I could handle it, but the tart, tangy flavour was overwhelming for my young taste buds. I’ve since learnt that citrus juice can be variously mellowed, perhaps adding sugar to make drizzles for cakes or incorporating it into creamy cheesecakes or possets.

Slicing into citrus fruits reveals a complex network of brightly coloured, almost translucent segments packed with tiny juice sacs that glisten in the light. They are held together by geometrically satisfying strips of white pith, which allow the fruits to fall apart neatly when peeled and split into segments.

When selecting citrus fruits for baking, choose firm, brightly coloured specimens that feel heavy for their size, as they should yield the most juice. If you are going to grate or pare the zest (which I recommend, as it contains the citrus oils that characterise each fruit), be sure to buy them unwaxed, as the protective wax coating applied to fruits has a bitter flavour and tough texture. If you can’t find unwaxed fruits, remove the wax by washing them in hot water and scrubbing them with a brush. Before juicing fruits, roll them on a worktop. The pressure of rolling bursts open some of the segments inside, which makes them easier to juice.