Thursday, April 3, 2008

How to cut orange segments (supreme)



supreme [su-PREMM]
v. to remove the skin, pith, membranes, and seeds of a citrus fruit and separate its wedges. Also as noun, a wedge of citrus fruit.

I made an orange and fennel salad last night that required orange slices, so I thought I'd offer a simple how-to on cutting perfect membrane and pith free orange segments (aka Supreme)...


1. Trim the top of the orange


2. Trim the bottom.


3. Carefully take your knife and begin carving around the orange.


4. Trim as much of the pith (white skin) off. Then find a segment (membrane) and cut to the right of it, cutting as close to it as possible so you don't end up wasting too much of the orange.


5. Now cut the other side of the orange segment. Carefully cutting left of the second membrane.


There you have it! A perfectly sliced orange.

5 comments:

cakewardrobe said...

What a structural way of cutting oranges! I love it!!! :)

Luke said...

Wow! You have much more patcientce than me. This would be perfect for fruit salad though.

Anonymous said...

on citrus with sturdier membranes (e.g., grapefruit and pomelos), you can cut down one side, turn your knife to cut away the inner part of the segment (where all the seeds are), then "lift" your segment away from the other membrane. doing it this way is faster than cutting both sides, gives you a higher yield, leaves the seeds on the "core," and reduces the amount of juice lost.

Marichelle said...

cakewardrobe + quirkypandacub: thanks for stopping by! And thank you for the tips!

Cuisine Heart said...

I attempted to follow some much less clear directions in a cookbook and wound up making a total mess. Thanks for the step-by-step photos and hints!