Drying Orange Peels

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Mirilis

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Im out of orange peel and i want to know if its ok to just wash fresh orange peel and let it dry out for later use. Or is there a special way to dry it.. i just let it set on my counter for a week or so
 
I have never used commercial 'orange peel', but I think what you want is the zest. The orange colored part, NOT. NOT the white pith under the peel. The pith under the peel tastes like bile. Taste it. Dead on bile.

Microplane works great for this. It should dry on your counter overnight, or on top of the fridge, which is a bit warm .

Luck.
 
I'm curious as well. Living in a citrus state makes you feel dumb buying processed orange peel.
 
Just my 2 bits, but I would recommend using organic oranges. Then you dont have to worry about insecticides, waxes and whatnot and the price difference isn't all that bad if you are just getting a small amount for your brewing.
 
I've read in a lot of recipes that the fresh zest should be added during the last 15 minutes of the boil but the chemical engineer in me balks at this ridiculousness. Many of the compounds in zest that give it its flavor are very volatile and are easily destroyed (boiled or denatured) by heat. My plan is to sanitize the microplane, oranges, and my hands and zest the lime over the wort once the wort has cooled. This way there is no chance of infecting the beer and I get to keep all the light boiling compounds in the orange. More work but who cares, that is supposed to be what brew day is for!
 
ChemE said:
Many of the compounds in zest that give it its flavor are very volatile and are easily destroyed (boiled or denatured) by heat.

But that is the same case with hops, that's why we add an addition at 15 and then at 5 or flameout usually... to preserve some of the volitile oils.
I did the same thing when I used orange and ginger in my Dortmunder experiment... a 2 ounce addition at 15 and another at flameout.
 
ChemE said:
I've read in a lot of recipes that the fresh zest should be added during the last 15 minutes of the boil but the chemical engineer in me balks at this ridiculousness. Many of the compounds in zest that give it its flavor are very volatile and are easily destroyed (boiled or denatured) by heat. My plan is to sanitize the microplane, oranges, and my hands and zest the lime over the wort once the wort has cooled. This way there is no chance of infecting the beer and I get to keep all the light boiling compounds in the orange. More work but who cares, that is supposed to be what brew day is for!

A true chemist would do an extraction in EtOH.
lulz
 
cge0 said:
A true chemist would do an extraction in EtOH.
lulz

But then you'd only get those compounds which are polar. How about all the non polar volatiles?
 
I love Alton Brown....he had a great way to dry fruit.

Take a box fan and 2 Air conditioner filters. Sprinkle a small amount of lemon juice on the fruit, probably could skip it with the orange. Place the fruit between the 2 filters and mount them on the fan. Let the fan run overnight should be close to dry, definitly within 24hrs.

You figure how to mount it, I forget what he did and homebrewers and smokers are probably the best at rigging what they need.
 
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