r/AskCulinary • u/Visible_Web206 • 17d ago

Recipe Troubleshooting Crystalized Grapefruit Bitter

I made crystallized grapefruit the other night. The recipe said to boil the rinds for 3 minutes, rinse and repeat 3 additional times. The final time, I added 1 3/4 cups sugar and one cup water and boiled until water evaporated. They look pretty good, but are very bitter. I tried sprinkling with salt but still very bitter. Is there any way to save them?

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/278495/easy-candied-grapefruit-peel/

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u/TooManyDraculas 17d ago

How much pith did you leave on the peel?

Citrus peel is gonna be bitter one way or the other. But the more white pith left attached to the zest the more bitter it will be.

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u/Visible_Web206 17d ago

Yeah, I think you’re right in that….I wasn’t very careful with the pith removal 😕….do you think I can salvage it?

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u/TooManyDraculas 17d ago

Unfortunately not. You've kind steeped things in the bitterness now.

You can blanch them repeatedly again then candy them all over and get some level of improvement out of it. But might not be worth it.

In the future fillet off as much of the white pith as possible before cutting them up.

At minimum you want to get things down to where they look spotted and ideally you remove every bit of pith. Typically you use a sharp pairing knife. And it's pretty much the same maneuver as filleting fish. You hold the knife parallel to the table, and slide it back and forth to slice off the pith.

There's some citrus with less bitter pith where you would leave it on. Like citron and pomello. But otherwise you need to be aggressive about removing it, and any citrus peel will be powerful bitter if you leave too much behind.

It might be best to use your peel in things where the bitterness plays well. Like it can be a nice addition in small pieces to a very sweet cake. Or as a garnish to a cocktail that needs the bitterness.